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One of the men behind the seizure of an LSD laboratory — alleged to have been the largest in U.S. history — at a decommissioned Atlas nuclear missile silo in Kansas will be released from prison after his sentence was commuted by President Joe Biden.

Federal inmate Clyde Apperson was one of 1,499 people whose sentences were commuted by Biden last week in what was the largest act of clemency in a single day in presidential history. Inmate records show that Apperson, age 69, will be released Dec. 22 from the residential reentry management field office in Seattle, Washington.


President Joe Biden's 1,499 commutations include the 2000 drug bust of an LSD lab at a former Atlas nuclear missile silo near Wamego. 
Nathan Howard/REUTERS

Cops busted LSD lab at Kansas nuclear missile silo

Apperson and co-defendant William Leonard Pickard were part of a drug bust in November 2000 that at the time was described by authorities as "the single largest seizure of an operable LSD lab in the history of the Drug Enforcement Administration."

In a news release from Nov. 25, 2003, then-U.S. attorney Eric Melgren announced that Apperson, then 48, had been sentenced to 30 years in prison while Pickard, then 58, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. They had been found guilty of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute LSD and possessing LSD with intent to distribute following an 11-week jury trial.

Apperson and Pickard were from the San Francisco Bay area of California. Pickard had previously been the co-director of the drug policy analysis program at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Apperson had been his assistant at UCLA.

Melgren, who is now the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, said at the time that illegal drug manufacturers and traffickers from elsewhere had been moving to less populated areas to try to avoid detection. Praising the work of law enforcement and prosecutors, Melgren said that "moving such illegal activity to Kansas is a mistake."

"And due to the federal sentencing guidelines, they will be sentenced to significant time in prison," Melgren said of illegal drug manufacturers and traffickers. "The message from this case is clear: drug dealers and manufacturers may not consider Kansas a place where they may get away with their illegal activities."

At the time, the DEA had only seized four complete LSD labs in its entire history, three of which involved Pickard and Apperson.

"These defendants were proven, by overwhelming evidence, to be responsible for the illicit manufacture of the majority of the LSD sold in this nation," then-DEA special agent in charge William J. Renton Jr. said at the time. "The proof of the significance of these prosecutions and convictions lies in the fact that LSD availability in the United States was reduced by 95% in the two years following their arrest."

Melgren said that DEA agents found an LSD lab packed in storage boxes when searching the missile silo site near Wamego on Oct. 31, 2000. Pickard and Apperson were using a rental truck to move the lab when they were stopped by the Kansas Highway Patrol. At the missile silo, law enforcement found 14 canisters of chemicals for LSD production, which they valued at more than $1 million.

Melgren said that Pickard and Apperson previously manufactured LSD in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the lab produced about 2.2 pounds every five weeks. That equated to about 10 million doses, with a production cost of less than 1 cent per dose and a sale price as high as $10 per dose. The drugs were then shipped to California and Europe for distribution.

Officials said that DEA agents seized nearly 91 pounds of LSD, and they seized precursors and byproducts of LSD production. But Slate later reported that the 91-pound figure, which had been widely reported in national media, was likely significantly over-exaggerated from the amount of LSD actually seized by the DEA.

Kansas judge denied motion to reduce sentence of LSD producer

Earlier this year, a federal judge rejected Apperson's request to reduce his sentence to time served.

U.S. District Judge Toby Crouse denied the motion in February.

Apperson had contended that his age, age-related medical conditions and rehabilitation in prison, as well as Pickard's compassionate release in 2020, were reasons he should be released. Crouse disagreed.

"None of Apperson's reasons to reduce his sentence rise to the level of extraordinary and compelling," he wrote.

Crouse described the LSD trafficking as "a massive, international operation." He wrote that Apperson was "an integral participant in an extensive and long-running operation which trafficked an astonishing amount of LSD."

"As noted, the nature of his offense was extremely serious," he wrote. "Together with Pickard, Apperson ran an extensive LSD manufacturing and distribution operation. He received a sentence less than that of Pickard, who received a life sentence. And while 17 years in prison arguably serves the requisite deterrent effect and the need to promote respect for the law, there were no unwarranted disparities at the time of sentencing nor did one arise when Pickard was granted compassionate release."

Crouse's decision was appealed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Monday dismissed it as moot because of Biden's commutation.

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