Peter Sellers’ Daughter Among 6 in State Tied to Cocaine Ring

The daughter of the late actor Peter Sellers was among six Californians indicted Wednesday on charges of participating in an international ring that allegedly used violence to obtain cocaine and collect drug debts.

Victoria Sellers, 23, an actress and model, shares a Hollywood, Calif., address with the ring’s alleged leader, Reed Wallace, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Judy Russell. She described Wallace, 30, as a talent promoter.

Sellers, whose mother is actress Britt Ekland and whose father died in 1980, was allegedly involved with Wallace in a drug-related assault and other offenses.

Among charges the federal grand jury returned against Wallace are engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison before parole eligibility.

Maximum Term Is 20 Years

Sellers and the other defendants face charges including conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine in multikilogram quantities, offenses that carry a maximum prison term of 20 years in prison.

Russell said the ring operated in New Jersey, California and other states and foreign countries she would not name, but added: “The bulk of the drugs were clearly distributed in California.”

The ring distributed more than three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of cocaine of Colombian origin in New Jersey on at least two occasions this year and last, she said, and claimed to be able to move quantities on a larger scale.

One of the ring’s reputed major suppliers, 35-year-old Andres Pulido Zorrilla of Beverly Hills, Calif., was indicted by a federal grand jury in Newark last week on the same continuing criminal enterprise charge, Russell said.

Conspiracy Charged

Between January, 1985, and early March, Wallace, Sellers, defendants Curtis Hunt, Stephen Nave, Candice Raggio and Philip Sena and others conspired to distribute multikilogram quantities of cocaine in New Jersey and elsewhere, the indictment alleges.

It also contends the defendants and others “agreed to and did use violence and threats of violence to obtain cocaine and to obtain payment for cocaine.”

Russell said searches of the defendants’ Los Angeles-area homes and vehicles uncovered numerous weapons.

Wallace was arrested Jan. 31 in New York City and is being held at the Metropolitan Corrections Center there, Russell said. Sellers, for whom an arrest warrant was issued Wednesday, was still at large, the prosecutor said. The other defendants are reported to be in custody.