Trial Opens for Suspected Marijuana Trafficker : Crime: Charges against the ex-owner of Rancho del Rio include tax evasion, drug distribution and laundering money.

Daniel J. Fowlie, whose 213-acre ranch in Orange County was seized by sheriff’s deputies, was described at the start of his trial Wednesday as an international “drug king” who had imported 30 tons of marijuana from Mexico for distribution throughout the United States

In opening remarks in federal court, Assistant U.S. Atty. Alana S. Artson told jurors that what he dubbed the “Daniel J. Fowlie organization” had been created after Fowlie went to Mexico in 1971 and arranged with Rafael Caro Quintero and Quintero’s middlemen to smuggle massive amounts of marijuana into the United States. Quintero was later among major Mexican drug smugglers who were indicted in the kidnaping and murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena.

Fowlie’s organization grew so big that couriers were employed to deliver flower-patterned French luggage “filled with cash” to Fowlie when he set up operation for a time in the Netherlands, where he is suspected of laundering millions of dollars through an oil business “that didn’t make a cent,” Artson said.

Fowlie, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with 26 felony counts. In a 32-page indictment, Fowlie, 58, is charged with income tax evasion, distribution of 53,000 pounds of marijuana, failing to report shipment of hundreds of thousands of dollars overseas, and operating a criminal enterprise.

If found guilty, he faces a possible life sentence.

James Riddet, one of Fowlie’s attorneys, said his client “is not the individual as portrayed by the government,” and maintained that Fowlie never even had marijuana in his possession.

Riddet attacked the credibility of the government’s list of witnesses, many of whom have already been arrested as major drug traffickers.

“This has been an investigation of Dan Fowlie for five to six years. . . . But the evidence will show that it’s a story, a story built on lies by people who are not worthy of your belief,” Riddet argued.

Fowlie, Riddet said, was a “legitimate, talented businessman.”

Artson said Fowlie’s business was based on Rancho del Rio on the southern border of Orange and Riverside counties, where Fowlie and others “packaged, weighed and warehoused” tons of marijuana.

“The defendant set up business and used a warehouse off the Ortega Highway . . . that had a huge underground storage tank where he stored the marijuana,” Artson alleged.

The ranch was a central distribution point for a series of warehouses that Fowlie is alleged to have rented in Orange County to store marijuana. Large amounts of cash were always on hand, Artson said, adding that at one point, witnesses saw $750,000 on a counter.

Government witnesses Jason Cooper and Ron Gates, who allegedly helped run the operation, have told investigators that Fowlie received allotments of $250,000, $500,000 and more in “drug profits,” Artson said.

When Orange County sheriff’s deputies raided Rancho del Rio, they found that the underground storage area “reeked” of marijuana, and discovered packaging equipment, scales, a money-counting machine, a Uzi machine gun and bullet-proof vests.

Fowlie allegedly fled to Mexico before deputies seized the ranch and was later arrested and extradited.

The secluded ranch was used by President Bush in 1989 as the backdrop for a national address on drug abuse.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday put the ranch up for sale. The minimum bid that the county will accept is $1.54 million.