Eureka cabinet maker arrested in smuggling of 17 tons of marijuana EUREKA - Federal agents have arrested a Eureka man for his alleged role in smuggling 17 tons of marijuana into the United States.
Michael R. Scott, 53, who was using the name Michael Snyder, was nabbed Tuesday.
''It was good stuff,'' said Brian Buschini, special agent with the U.S. Customs Service. ''The street value, I would guess it might go for $1,000 per pound. That's a pretty conservative estimate.''
In nice round numbers, the haul was worth about $34 million to the smugglers.
Buschini, assisted by two other Customs agents and deputies from the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, arrested Scott on charges of criminal conspiracy to smuggle dangerous drugs into the United States.
According to Buschini, Scott allegedly joined several other drug runners in a July 4, 1993, operation off the coast of Seattle. The smugglers, Buschini said, took the fishing vessel ''Southern Cross'' into the Pacific to rendezvous with a ''mother ship'' from Southeast Asia.
They initially intended to load 23 tons of high-grade Thai marijuana onto ''Southern Cross,'' he said, but the boat would handle just 17 tons. The remaining six tons were thrown into the ocean.
Once ashore, the smugglers loaded the marijuana onto trucks for the trip to San Francisco. There, U.S. agents caught up with the group, and several individuals were arrested and later convicted. Throughout the smuggling trials, members of the group cooperated with authorities, and many other names surfaced - including Michael Scott's.
''In a big case like this,'' Buschini said, ''it's common to have many rounds of indictments. It can take years.''
Last month, on Feb. 5, a federal grand jury indicted Scott in the northern district of California for his role in the caper. Authorities tracked him to Eureka, where he was working as a self-employed cabinet and furniture maker.
He was arrested Tuesday without incident.
On Wednesday, Scott appeared before the U.S. Magistrate in Great Falls, and was held over without bail. He is currently being transported to San Francisco, where he will appear in U.S. District Court.
According to Buschini, who worked in California before transferring to the Great Falls office, discovering such large amounts of marijuana is not as unusual as it might at first appear.
''You see these huge marine shipments coming in... to Oregon, California, in this case Washington. I won't say it happens all the time, but it's certainly not uncommon. We usually don't get that kind of volume here in Montana, of course, but in California, it's not as rare as you'd think.''
The large quantities are usually sold to a number of bulk buyers, he said, in blocks of 500 to 1,000 pounds. By the time it passes through middle men and hits the street, he said, the price can be upward of $100 for one-quarter of an ounce. At that final price, the shipment brought in on the ''Southern Cross'' would be worth more than $217 billion.
RHOADES
CAR
4 Wheel Bikes That Drive Like a Car!, Street legal,Multi-speed, 1-2 & 4 seaters-FREE
LITERATURE