Pubdate: Thu, Jun 03 1999
Source: Oregonian, The (OR)
Copyright: 1999 The Oregonian
Contact:  1320 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Author: Mark Larabee, the Oregonian

FINAL DEFENDANT IN MARIJUANA-SMUGGLING CASE PLEADS GUILTY

Walter McDowell Martin's Plea To Conspiracy Stems From A 1987 Raid That Led
To 36 Defendants

The last of 36 defendants in Oregon's largest marijuana-smuggling case
pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge Wednesday, 12 years after a
raid on a Southern Oregon beach netted 17,000 pounds of pot and shut down a
major drug ring.

Walter McDowell Martin, 44, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in
Portland to one count of conspiracy to import more than 1,000 kilograms of
marijuana. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 18.

Martin was the last in a long list of defendants the government has locked
away since the raid of the 71-foot shrimp trawler, California Sun, which
ran aground off Frankfort Beach, 15 miles north of Gold Beach, on June 21,
1987. Police boats and a helicopter swooped in, surprising the smugglers as
they unloaded more than eight tons of high-grade Thai marijuana.

Official accounts of the raid say that a resident reported a boat without
lights bobbing at a former barge moorage. Police arrested 12 people during
the raid, and the California Sun eventually sank.

Martin was not arrested in the raid. He remained a fugitive until last
October, when he was arrested by special police in the Philippines and
turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Manila. The six-count
indictment filed in 1991 accused him of conspiring to import marijuana in
April 1986, importing marijuana in May and June of 1987 and possession.

The raid and subsequent arrests led Oregon State Police and other
investigators to more than 40 other incidents of marijuana smuggling in
Oregon, Nevada and California between 1975 and 1991.

Police also learned that the smugglers had used the Southern Oregon landing
point at least two other times. Officials estimate the ring smuggled more
than $250 million worth of marijuana into the United States before being
discovered.

During the investigation, the government seized about $20 million in cash,
bank accounts, cars, boats and other goods, including two $750,000 homes in
Hawaii.

In October 1990, after three years as a fugitive, Michael E. McCutcheon of
Trinidad, Calif., was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison as the leader
of the smuggling operation. McCutcheon was on the U.S. Marshal's Service's
"15 Most Wanted" list before his arrest in Phoenix, Ariz.
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