U.S. Agents Arrest Vet In Drug Case

Capsules Seized After High Speed Chase in County

By George Kane
Of the World Staff

Federal agents arrested a Tulsa veterinarian late Thursday and seized 100,000 amphetamine and barbiturate capsules after a high-speed chase over dirt roads in south Tulsa County.

Two agents were injured, neither seriously, when they tried to stop a spick-up truck allegedly carrying the pills and driven by the man taken into custody. A government car was smashed in the chase.

Arrested and arraigned shortly after midnight before U.S. Commissioner Ben Ballenger at the federal building was Dr. C.A. Mohr Jr., 2210 S. Indianapolis Ave.

Mohr is charged with five federal counts under recent amendments to Pure Food and Drug laws.

Wife Calls Lawyer

Attorney John Tanner appeared at the federal building for Mohr’s arraignment after Mohr instructed his wife in the elevator of the federal building to call Tanner. His wife was informed of the arrest after Mohr was booked by city police, then turned to federal agents.

Agents from the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control, a branch of the Pure Food and drug Administration, came into Tulsa Wednesday. Along with Tulsa police officer Gary Glanz, they set up a purchase of drugs on a back road near 33rd West Avenue and 78th Street Thursday night.

One agent was injured slightly when a federal car cracked up, and the other agent suffered a head would when he made a leap for the tailgate of a pickup truck as it sped away on a dirt road.

Assistance Sought

Glanz, in the path of the truck a short distance down the road, hurried to a farmhouse nearby and summoned police.

Mohr was taken into custody near the Okmulgee Beeline.

Evert Atkinson, director of the Kansas City field station of the bureau, asked that no agents’ names be used. He and Glanz said the case has been worked on here and in Kansas City for nearly eight months.

According to the information filed against Mohr, and listing the five counts, he is alleged to have sold drugs without prescriptions after shipment of the drugs in interstate commerce.

Value Estimated

Drugs seized and contained in two 50,000-capsule drums were described as Seconal capsules and di-amphetamine and sulfate tablets.

Agents estimated the retail value of the drugs at between $10,000 and $25,000, although they said the wholesale price as "considerably lower."

The charges allege that sale of drugs without a prescription causes the drugs to be misbranded, which is in violation of federal statutes.

Amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act under which Mohr is charged went into effect Feb. 1, this year.

Mohr was placed under $5,000 bond. The seized drugs are being held pending the filing of a libel of information, a civil proceeding in which a court order is sought for forfeiture of the seized property. The action actually is unrelated to the criminal charges.

Was In Air Patrol

Mohr, a long-time veterinarian here, was known as the "flying veterinarian" during the late 1940s, and was a member of the Tulsa Police air patrol.

In that capacity, he rescued a Chicago boy marooned on Grand Lake for 13 hours in August 1946.

Mohr was asked by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to search for missing 8-year-old Eugene Steel. He sighted the boy clinging to an oar in the lake, landed his amphibian plane and swam to the boy’s rescue.

Mohr has received widespread recognition in national publications, among them Coronet, Colliers, and Flying Magazine.