‘Enforcer’ in Sellers Drug Case Sentenced to 10 Years

A man described by authorities as an enforcer in a cocaine conspiracy involving the daughter of the late actor Peter Sellers was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison.

“I think the evidence shows you were an active part in this conspiracy, although you were at a lower level,” said U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise in sentencing Curtis (Zippy) Hunt, 25, of Venice, Calif.

The drug ring, which was cracked in January, operated in California, New Jersey, Tennessee and Florida, according to authorities.

A jury deliberated for three hours June 2 before convicting Hunt of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession with intent to distribute.

Hunt could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Violent Cocaine Ring

He, Victoria Sellers, her house mate, Reed Wallace, and three others were indicted March 12 on conspiracy charges for their alleged roles in what authorities said was a violent international cocaine ring.

When Debevoise asked Hunt if he had anything to say, Hunt said rapidly in a deep voice, “I feel that some of the statements made against me were lies. I just want to ask for mercy of the court.”

In pleading for leniency, Hunt’s attorney, James Plaia, cited his client’s low rank in the operation, his two years of steady employment before the indictment, a good recommendation from his employer and a lack of bitterness toward authorities.

“Curtis is now 25 and certainly his background is not one that is exemplary,” Plaia said. “By the same token, I do not think that he is as evil and violent a person as the U.S. government would have us believe.”

Sellers testified during Hunt’s trial that she was with him during a drug deal in a limousine in Los Angeles and that he had a .45-caliber automatic pistol under the seat.

Law enforcement authorities testified that Hunt boasted to them after his arrest that he had murdered a South American drug dealer in Rio de Janeiro for $10,000.

But Plaia said Hunt only said that because he thought it was what investigators wanted to hear.

“If the words armed and dangerous apply to anyone, they certainly apply to this defendant,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Judy Russell told the judge.

The prosecution said it would drop conspiracy charges against Sellers if she testified truthfully against the other defendants.

The 21-year-old British daughter of Sellers and actress Britt Ekland would have faced up to 20 years in jail if convicted of the conspiracy charges.

Entered Guilty Plea

She pleaded guilty to knowing about drug transactions by Wallace, who was also her talent agent, and not reporting the crimes, and she now faces up to three years in prison. She will be sentenced after the other defendants are tried.

Sellers, a secretary in her stepfather’s production company who appeared nude in a 10-page layout in the April issue of Playboy, testified that she lured an alleged drug dealer to her home at Wallace’s request and that Wallace beat him with a pool cue.

Wallace, who had run a telephone sex-call business, pleaded guilty to running a continuing criminal enterprise and faces a 10-year sentence with no parole. Wallace is in protective custody at an undisclosed location and also will be sentenced after other trials in the case are completed, prosecutors said.