Police Release One of Four Suspects in Marijuana Case
Saying they lacked the evidence to file charges, Newport Beach police have released one of four men arrested this week after authorities found six tons of marijuana on a sailboat.
Police spokesman Tom Little said Friday that Michael Edward Lewis, a 35-year-old light airplane salesman from Petaluma, was released from the Orange County Jail Wednesday, one day after his arrest.
Three suspects remained in custody Friday at the jail on suspicion of conspiring to transport or sell narcotics. Each was being held on $250,000 bail, pending arraignment Monday in Harbor Municipal Court, Little said.
Three of the men were arrested late Tuesday and early Wednesday after a city patrol officer discovered an estimated $10 million worth of marijuana--baled and wrapped in burlap packages--in a boat moored off a public fishing pier on Balboa Island.
Still in jail are Richard William Nelson, 25, of Amesbury, Mass.; Victor Paul Lucini, 35, of Santa Cruz, and David Paul Choy, 28, of Santa Cruz. Choy was arrested Wednesday morning at a Costa Mesa hotel on the same charges, Little said.
As of January, 1984, the boat was registered to John Paul of Santa Cruz. Police said Friday that they have not been able to reach Paul, but Little said investigators do not believe the owner was involved in the crime.
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