11 Seized in Alleged Plot to Import Drug

Former labor leader Raymond Lane was among 11 people held Monday in connection with an alleged plot to smuggle more than a ton of Colombian cocaine into the United States, using a pilot who turned out to be an undercover federal agent, authorities said.

Lane, 59, described by U.S. Atty. Joseph Russoniello as “one of the main financial backers of the enterprise,” was arraigned before a U.S. magistrate on charges of conspiracy to import cocaine.

The same charge was also filed against Simon Sotelo, 43, of San Jose, a convicted cocaine dealer who was paroled last year. Eight of the defendants are being held for a hearing Thursday on a prosecution request to keep them without bail. The other three are under arrest in McAllen, Tex.

Lane, of Alameda, is a former leader of Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, Local 28, in Oakland. He pleaded guilty in 1979 to embezzling money from the union and spent six months in jail, was sued successfully by two union waitresses for sexual harassment and has been charged with corruption in connection with a union merger. He quit the union post in 1980.

During the arrests Sunday morning, federal and local drug agents seized about 28 pounds of cocaine at a Sotelo family ranch in Gilroy, along with a number of guns, authorities said.

The charges involve about 2,200 pounds of cocaine, which wholesales for about $22 million, according to Joseph Krueger, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Francisco. A DEA agent’s statement filed in federal court said that the cocaine shipment was part of a plan that involved smuggling five tons of the drug.

The cocaine was to be flown to San Francisco in a small plane, then taken to Milpitas, where Sotelo runs a wine cooler business, for distribution in various areas, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen Graham, coordinator of the Drug Enforcement Task Force.

The affidavit by the DEA agent said authorities learned in February that Sotelo and Lane were looking for a pilot and sent an undercover agent to Palm Springs to infiltrate the operation.