The State - News from Oct. 7, 1987

Thirteen people, including a former savings and loan executive, were indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco for allegedly taking part in a $300-million Sonoma County-based cocaine and marijuana ring. Siddharth (Sid) Shah, 46, of Sonoma, former executive vice president of the collapsed Centennial Savings & Loan in Santa Rosa, was charged in drug distribution and money-laundering conspiracies punishable by up to 20 years in prison, said federal drug task force coordinator John Stephen Graham. The alleged ringleader, Ronald Richard Stevenson, 41, has not been seen publicly since his Santa Rosa house was destroyed by arson in December, 1982, Graham said. Federal prosecutors said the ring operated mainly in Sonoma and Marin counties from the early 1970s through at least July, 1985, and imported marijuana, hashish and cocaine worth more than $300 million in street value from Mexico, Morocco, Colombia and Thailand.