3 Arrested, Ketch Seized at Balboa Jetty : Curious Newport Officer Finds Six Tons of Pot on Boat

Three men were arrested and six tons of marijuana worth an estimated $10 million was seized from a sailboat moored at a Balboa Peninsula jetty, Newport Beach police said Tuesday.

A police spokesman said that a curious patrol officer noticed the 45-foot ketch tied at a public fishing pier where boats are rarely seen, and stumbled upon the baled marijuana inside the hull.

Booked into City Jail on suspicion of conspiracy to sell and transport narcotics were Richard William Nelson, 25, of Amesbury, Mass., Victor Paul Lucini, 35, of Santa Cruz and Michael Edward Lewis, 35, of Petaluma. All were being held on $250,000 bail each, said Officer Tom Little.

Little said Officer Chuck Freeman spotted the sailboat about 8:30 p.m. Monday at the fishing pier on M Street, where it is unlawful to dock for more than 20 minutes. Freeman also found it odd that the boat was sitting extremely low in the water, Little said.

A half hour later, the boat was still there and Officer Freeman went over to check it out, ittle said. Freeman saw Nelson get off the boat and asked for his identification, Little said.

When Nelson climbed into the boat to get his wallet, Little said, the officer “smelled an extremely strong smell of marijuana coming from the boat.”

It was when Freeman opened the hatch to enter the boat hull that he saw the “gunnysack or burlap-wrapped bundles” and found marijuana inside one of them, Little said. He said Nelson was taken into custody.

A search warrant was obtained while investigators hid and watched to see if anyone else approached the boat, Little said.

About four hours later, Lucini allegedly drove up to the pier, left Lewis in the car and wandered around the boat, police said. The two men drove off and were stopped and arrested a short time later.

Police called in U.S. Coast Guard investigators and Drug Enforcement Administration agents. It took several hours to unload the 12,000 pounds--wrapped in 167 packages, Little said. The marijuana was taken to the police station.