Lab results of materials seized at a Tempe storage facility where an ASU professor is suspected of storing chemicals used to manufacture Ecstasy, are expected Thursday, said Frank Valenzuela, Department of Public Safety spokesman.
Ralph Backhaus, an ASU plant biology professor, was arrested Oct. 2, but not formally charged for suspected connections in an Ecstasy drug ring.
It is unclear how Backhaus is directly connected with the renter or renters of the storage facility at 500 N. Scottsdale Road, but there are items in the facility that are linked to Backhaus, Valenzuela said.
“Some things in the storage facility were ordered from ASU and through his (Backhaus’s) account,” Valenzuela said.
After an on-site field test at the storage facility, the search warrant conclusion read: “A 4,000 ml. glass beaker that contains an off-white crystalline substance that field-tested positive for MDMA.”
MDMA is a “powder form of Ecstasy,” Valenzuela said.
Greg Peterson, an interdisciplinary studies senior, has had Backhaus for three classes and describes him as “laid back.”
“He is committed to teaching,” Peterson said. “That is why I have taken him three times. I look forward to him coming back and taking additional classes with him.”
Backhaus’s wife, Balbir Backhaus, an ASU graduate student, told the State Press last week that her husband will be proven innocent.
“He was not involved in this,” Balbir Backhaus said. “I know he’s innocent.”
Valenzuela still confirms that there is at least one ASU student who has been arrested in this case but has not released the student’s name.
Backhaus remains on paid leave from the University since his arrest.
Reach Kristin Koch at kristinrose79@asu.edu.
