Pubdate: Wed,  7 Aug 2002
Source: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2002 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Jonathon King

BROWARD FISHERMEN FIND THEMSELVES IN MIDDLE OF BIMINI GUN BATTLE

He'd never seen a helicopter spitting gunfire before. "Man, when those
big-caliber guns are goin' it'll wake you up." He'd never seen a firefight
before. "You could see the small-arms fire from the boat and the flame
jumpin' out of the chopper."

He'd never had $600,000 worth of cocaine in a water-soaked box between his
legs before. "I just saw it floating out there and dove after it."

But Alan Plumber, a 46-year-old air-conditioning contractor from Pompano
Beach, knew what to do with some 80 pounds of cocaine he salvaged when his
fishing trip to Bimini turned into a real life Miami Vice episode.

"As soon as I got on shore, I yelled for a cop."

Officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Coast Guard
say the Sunday morning chase was part of an ongoing task force operation
with Bahamian authorities working to stop the drug flow from the islands
into South Florida.

Officials said task force members saw three men dump several packages
overboard during the chase. The boat finally ran aground on the beach of a
nearby island, and the three suspects escaped.

They later pulled 1,635 pounds of marijuana and 30 pounds of cocaine from
the ocean, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Anastasia Burns.

"This is what we do in the Bahamas on a regular basis," said DEA spokesman
Jim Shedd. "It's 2:30 on a Sunday morning, and we're out there."

It may be routine for law enforcement, but for a guy who just wanted to go
fishing, "it was a hell of a thing."

Deep into the morning hours, Plumber, Pat McElmeel, McElmeel's sons Mark,
12, and Brent, 9, and neighbor Chris Sanson, 13, were in their fishing boat
tied up at the dock on South Bimini island. Plumber was the first one up top
when the noise of a helicopter and a racing boat "with his throttles full
out" woke them.

"There weren't any running lights on this 40-foot cigarette and, man, he was
moving," Plumber said. "Then you could hear the gunfire and see the flashes
from both the boat and the chopper.

"People start coming out of their boats and houses to watch, and the chopper
had his spotlight on this boat and then it looked like they lost him."

About an hour later when things had settled, Plumber said, he was still on
the dock when he saw light reflecting off a package some 100 yards out in
the harbor channel.

"I swim out there, and it's this package with reflective tape on it. So I
grab it and one-arm-it back."

When he got to the dock Plumber said there were several locals willing to
help him with the load.

"I mean, these guys were trying to rip it out of my hands," he said. "I'm
like, no, no, no. I got it."

On shore, he saw an official-looking man using a radio and flagged him down.
They ripped open the package and found several plastic-wrapped bundles of
white powder. Several minutes later the helicopter and a small boatload of
DEA agents and Alicetown officers armed with automatic weapons came to meet
them.

"The guy I flagged down turns out to be a former police official and when he
saw the coke he says: 'Thank you God, this s--- isn't going to get into our
island and to our kids.'"

Plumber said that later that day as he and his group were setting out for
more fishing, someone on the docks approached him.

"He says, 'Hey, you the guy turned that cocaine in. You some kinda fool? You
crazy.'"

Plumber admits he might have had a glimmering thought of how much his find
was worth.

"But I've seen what addiction and drugs do to people, to kids," said
Plumber, a member of Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous who said he has been
clean for 26 years.

"I just told the guy, 'hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.'"
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