Crime-Ring Case to Go to Jurors : Trial: The prosecution calls an alleged drug smuggler the ‘No. 1’ man; the defense argues that he was a bit player.

Summing up six weeks of testimony against alleged marijuana smuggler Dan Fowlie, prosecutors called him the “No. 1” man of a major, Orange County-based crime ring, while defense attorneys argued that he was a bit player in an operation that smuggled 60,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States from 1981 to 1986.

Special Assistant U.S. Atty. James Dutton said during closing arguments in U.S. District Court that the operation was taking in so much money that “cash was all over the place; even the wastebaskets had cash in them.”

“They had a drug profit at $30 to $150 a pound depending on the quality, and they had $30 million in gross revenue,” Dutton said.

But defense attorneys, who rested their case without calling a witness, attacked use of key prosecution witnesses who had been arrested as part of the operation but had won immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony.

James Riddet, Fowlie’s attorney, told jurors that the government’s case was tainted because prosecutors used “liars” for witnesses who “were biased, admitted perjurers.”

“There was simply no credible evidence that shows that Dan Fowlie was guilty of anything as contained in the indictment,” Riddet said.

Fowlie, 58, who was extradited from Mexico to Orange County in July, is being tried on 26 felony counts. According to a 32-page federal indictment, Fowlie is accused of income-tax evasion, distribution of 53,000 pounds of marijuana, failing to report shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars overseas and operating a continuing criminal enterprise.

The case is expected to go to the jury today. If found guilty, he faces a possible life sentence.

Fowlie allegedly bought tons of marijuana from Javier Caro-Payan, a major Mexican drug source in Guadalajara, and had the narcotic shipped to his 213-acre Orange County estate, Rancho del Rio. The ranch, which was seized in the mid-1980s by sheriff’s deputies, lies in the backcountry near the Riverside County line.

From the ranch, shipments in 500- to 1,000-pound allotments and larger were sent to dealers across the nation and Canada, according to testimony during the trial.

In court, the prosecution said Fowlie, using an alias of “James Briggs,” leased an elaborate network of warehouses in Orange County--including Huntington Beach, El Toro and Anaheim--where the marijuana was kept for packaging and distribution.

On Jan. 19, 1983, Anaheim police raided one of the warehouses and found a truck inside loaded with more than 1,500 pounds of marijuana. The raid was prompted by a locksmith who was hired to change the locks after high winds blew the doors open. While inside, the locksmith noticed a funny smell. When he investigated, he found the truck loaded with 100 bales of marijuana with a street value of $1 million.

Inside the warehouse, Dutton said, marijuana fragments “were strewn throughout the place.” Plastic rolls and packing equipment were also found, Dutton told jurors, adding that it was “a place definitely not for keeping marijuana for a personal use.”

During closing arguments, Riddet attacked the credibility of two prosecution witnesses, Joseph Cooper and Clyde Ronald Gates, who prosecutors contended were Fowlie’s lieutenants and helped run the operation.

Riddet said that during some FBI interviews Cooper and Gates did not link Fowlie with any crime. On the witness stand, however, both men incriminated Fowlie, Riddet told jurors.

“Cooper told the FBI he was paying Gates $25 a pound for marijuana he bought from him without saying that Gates was going to give the money to Fowlie,” Riddet said. “On the witness stand that story changed.”

Riddet implied to the jury that the testimony of Cooper, Gates and several other witnesses had been coached and manipulated by the government.

The government hung the “threat and fear” of future criminal prosecution against these witnesses if they failed to cooperate according to the government’s version, Riddet said.