Major Drug Smuggler Pleads Guilty

A man prosecutors called the biggest single broker of Southeast Asian marijuana has admitted smuggling nearly 200 tons of the drug into the United States and could be fined more than $6 million.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Peter Mueller confirmed Wednesday that Brian Peter Daniels, 43, entered a negotiated guilty plea during a quiet and brief court session Friday before U.S. District Judge John Coughenour.

Daniels, a wealthy New York native who lived for years in Thailand before his arrest in 1988, could be sentenced to life in prison and fined up to $6.25 million. Sentencing was set for May 25. Daniels is being held without bail in the Pierce County Jail.

“As far as I’m aware, he was the biggest broker of Southeast Asian marijuana,” Mueller said.

Authorities said Daniels was behind the June, 1988, shipment of 72 tons of high-grade Laotian marijuana on a converted oil-supply ship that was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard 400 miles off the Washington coast.

He was also named as the mastermind behind huge marijuana shipments to Southern California, Oregon, Nevada, British Columbia and Mexico.

In his plea, Daniels admitted to one count of operating a continuing criminal enterprise and two counts of conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana. Mueller said the negotiated plea included some charges originally filed in San Diego and Reno, Nev.

Daniels had been charged in Seattle and San Diego with attempting to smuggle more than 137 tons of high-grade marijuana, worth nearly $550 million.