Countywide : Judge Cuts Sentence of Drug Conspirator

A federal judge on Tuesday reduced the sentence of Daniel Mack Fowlie, who was convicted on charges linked to a massive drug-smuggling ring that authorities say was run from a remote ranch in east Orange County.

U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler cut six months from the 3 1/2-year term received by Fowlie, 31, the son of Daniel James Fowlie, the suspected kingpin of the operation allegedly based at Rancho del Rio, a 213-acre property near San Juan Capistrano.

The elder Fowlie, who is wanted on 49 drug-smuggling charges filed in federal court, is now fighting extradition to the United States from a prison cell in La Paz, Mexico. His ranch, now under the control of the Sheriff’s Department, was the backdrop for a national address on drugs last summer by President Bush.

Stotler reduced Fowlie’s sentence, noting the disparity between his punishment and that of his brother Gustave C. Fowlie, 29, who received 24 months for conviction on the same charge, conspiracy to distribute marijuana. She also cited in her decision a probation officer’s earlier recommendation that Fowlie should receive 36 months for the crime.

Federal public defender H. Dean Steward, who represents Fowlie, said the reduction makes his client eligible for formal parole in February, 1991; however, he could qualify as early as August for a halfway house or a federal electronic monitoring program. Participants in the program are released from prison but must wear electronic devices that can be tracked by law enforcement authorities.

Fowlie and his brother pleaded guilty in July, 1989, to charges that they helped unload 5,000 pounds of marijuana from two vans that arrived at Rancho del Rio in December, 1984. Their father is accused of smuggling hundreds of thousands of pounds of marijuana and lesser amounts of cocaine into the United States from Mexico.