Drug Probes Find Smugglers in the Military

The American military has encountered an unexpected enemy in its war on drugs: U.S. servicemen smuggling marijuana and cocaine into California for Mexican drug rings.

At least 50 Marines and sailors have been investigated “in recent years” for drug running, according to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Eight military probes involving 20 Marine and Navy suspects were launched in the past year alone, officials said in response to a Times inquiry.

And investigators said five of the cases involved Marines suspected of driving narcotics through Camp Pendleton to apparently help traffickers avoid the Border Patrol checkpoint on nearby Interstate 5.

Officials refused to provide names of the suspects or other details about the smuggling cases, including how many were prosecuted or convicted.

The number of service members implicated in smuggling is relatively small compared to the more than 100,000 sailors and Marines stationed in the San Diego area.

But the development represents an insidious twist in the corrupting influence of the drug trade, which previously has spawned bribery investigations and convictions of several federal border agents.

Records show that some servicemen who were arrested by federal drug agents worked for major Mexican drug rings. Authorities say most, if not all, of these rings have ties to the violent Arellano-Felix cartel of Tijuana that funnels tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States.

Officials were reluctant to discuss the investigations because a number are ongoing. However, some acknowledged privately that they are surprised and dismayed that any servicemen were involved in smuggling at a time that the military has been used to help stem the flow of drugs across the border.

“Overall, we don’t consider [military drug smugglers] a [big] problem,” said a senior federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“But it’s one that interests us because you don’t expect military personnel to be involved in drug smuggling.”

A few servicemen allegedly used their military training or positions to assist the traffickers, records show.

In one case, an active duty Marine sneaked marijuana shipments into the United States by using a rubber speedboat to elude Coast Guard and Navy radar. Under cover of night, the drugs were delivered to waiting vehicles at San Diego County beaches.

Military authorities said some servicemen were recruited at Tijuana nightspots and allegedly were paid to transport drugs across the border in private vehicles. Marines and sailors, they said, evidently were chosen because their clean-cut looks made them less likely to raise suspicion among border inspectors and to be searched.

Cases Called ‘Isolated Incidents’

Debbie Hartman, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney here, said her office does not track convictions by occupation and does not know how many servicemen have been convicted of smuggling.

Pentagon officials said they do not know how many servicemen have been court-martialed and convicted for drug smuggling--nor how many from each branch are now under investigation.

“The number of smuggling cases is so rare that we don’t track them,” said Department of Defense spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Begines in Washington. “This is something that rarely happens because the military has a deserved reputation for being hard on drug usage.”

Begines said that out of an active duty force of 1.4 million, 4,888 servicemen and women were discharged for drug-related misconduct--mostly marijuana and cocaine use--in fiscal 1998.

In a written response to questions from The Times, NCIS Special Agent Wayne Clookie said that at least 50 Marines and sailors have been investigated or currently are under investigation for narcotics trafficking in the San Diego area.

“To the best of our knowledge, these are isolated incidents,” he said. “We have no information which would indicate [drug smuggling] is a widespread problem.”

He said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which handles investigations for the Navy and Marine Corps, is examining cases developed by its investigators and is looking into alleged smuggling by servicemen who have been apprehended by civilian law enforcement agencies.

Capt. Gregg Hartung, Navy spokesman in San Diego, said only one sailor was court-martialed for drug smuggling in fiscal 1998. Seaman Jeffrey T. Baca was arrested March 20, 1998, at the border trying to import “in excess of 122 pounds of marijuana,” he said.

Baca was reduced in rank, sentenced to 12 months in the brig and will be discharged upon completing his sentence, Hartung said.

“The Navy has mandated training for every sailor, making everyone aware of the dangers in visiting Mexico,” he said.

“When [drug smuggling] does happen, we consider it a serious infraction that warrants vigorous prosecution.”

Two Marines Are Indicted

In the last two years, U.S. Customs Service agents have investigated 10 to 15 such cases of active-duty military men and reservists involved in narcotics trafficking, according to a federal official familiar with the probes.

Investigations by U.S. Customs and Drug Enforcement Administration agents have resulted in the indictment of at least two Marines here during the past year, and one National Guard soldier is a fugitive, records show.

Smuggling cases targeting dozens of military personnel have arisen while U.S. Army, California National Guard and Marine units were conducting drug interdiction patrols along the border.

Ground patrols were ended in the summer of 1997, after a shooting incident in Redford, Texas, where a team of Camp Pendleton Marines killed a U.S. citizen who allegedly fired at them.

As some Marines were patrolling the border, Marine Lance Cpl. Jason Allen Miller and a Mexican national were arrested at 2 a.m. on Feb. 9, 1997, by customs agents for transporting 1,000 pounds of marijuana in a 14-foot Quicksilver rubber speedboat off the San Diego coast. Miller pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Miller, 22, had been trained in military beach landing techniques, said one investigator.

Court records alleged that Miller and his accomplice dumped seven U.S. Army duffel bags of marijuana into the sea when they were apprehended.

Investigators said Miller acknowledged that he previously smuggled eight similar loads but declined to say who hired him or how much money he was paid. A state Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman said Miller had been listed as owner or co-owner of 27 vehicles, including two watercraft.

Miller did not respond to an interview request submitted to his attorney, Steve Hubachek, who declined to comment.

Court records show that Miller was working for a drug ring run by some members of a San Diego-area family that had confederates on both sides of the border. The patriarch, Claude Wayne Nicholas, was convicted in a separate marijuana smuggling case and he died of cancer in federal prison in July.

One of his sons, Martin Ricardo Nicholas, 28, was convicted along with Miller. According to military records, Martin Nicholas was an ex-Marine who was honorably discharged in 1993.

Marine Reservist Becomes a Fugitive

In a separate case, another son, Juan Cruz Nicholas, 23, was arrested in 1997 with Marine reservist Jerry Sandy Makepeace, 28.

Makepeace had ties to both Nicholas brothers. Records show that he worked at the same Tijuana junkyard with Juan Nicholas and served in the same Marine units with Martin Nicholas between 1989 and 1991.

When Makepeace was arrested last year, he was out on bail from a 1996 marijuana smuggling indictment. It alleged that Makepeace, a Guatemalan citizen, “used his status in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve to circumvent the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint at San Clemente [on Interstate 5] by using the roads at . . . Camp Pendleton when Makepeace was transporting marijuana.”

The indictment identified Makepeace as a member of a Mexicali-based ring that smuggled marijuana through the Imperial Valley. Court records said he was “operating a marijuana distribution point” out of his Chula Vista apartment.

In June 1997, after he was freed on bail, Makepeace was arrested in a DEA sting and indicted with Juan Cruz Nicholas for possession of methamphetamine and assaulting a DEA agent. Nicholas received a sentence of 15 years and 8 months for aiding and abetting the distribution of methamphetamine.

Sources said the 1996 indictment was dismissed partly because authorities believed that the 1997 case was stronger. After the dismissal, Makepeace was mistakenly released from federal custody in August 1997. Officials say he is a fugitive.

Camp Pendleton Used by Traffickers

Earlier this year, a customs intelligence memo suggested that traffickers still were using Camp Pendleton--a 125,000-acre installation about 60 miles from Tijuana.

The Feb. 25 memo obtained by The Times said an informant told investigators that the Arellano-Felix cartel transports small loads of marijuana through the base to avoid the Border Patrol checkpoint on I-5 at San Onofre.

“The drug runners have a route through or around a barricade at Camp Pendleton” by entering the base through Las Pulgas Road, five miles south of the Border Patrol checkpoint, the memo stated.

Attempts to Avoid Checkpoint

NCIS agent Clookie said two civilians were arrested on the base in November 1997 for transporting 52 pounds of marijuana. “They attempted to cross the base to avoid the I-5 checkpoint,” Clookie said. “While the I-5 checkpoint may be avoided by crossing Camp Pendleton, there is a greater chance of getting caught on base.”

Camp Pendleton spokesman Lt. Eric Dent said Marine officials are aware of the temptations young Marines face while visiting Tijuana. The base uses a Department of Defense counselor to train Marines how to respond when “targeted by drug peddlers, prostitutes and gangs.”

“We expect our Marines to understand that if they’re in Tijuana and are asked to bring something across the border, they should fall back on our core values,” Dent said. “We don’t want any part of this. But we realize that our people are human and some mistakes will be made.”

One of the first reported smuggling cases involving an active-duty Marine occurred in 1995. The Times reported that Cpl. Yiluarde “Jerry” Pacheco belonged to a Mexican drug ring based in Yorba Linda that was dismantled by the DEA. When he was arrested, Pacheco was a staff member of the commanding general at Camp Pendleton.

Links to Colombia Cartel

Pacheco’s ring had direct ties to the Cali cartel in Colombia, and records show that the ring shipped up to 14 tons of cocaine between 1993 and 1994 from Southern California to other U.S. cities.

An affidavit filed by a DEA agent said Pacheco rented dwellings for storing cocaine and transported the drug. However, federal prosecutors said there is no evidence that Pacheco shipped cocaine through Camp Pendleton.

Pacheco was convicted on smuggling charges and is serving a seven-year prison sentence. He did not respond to an interview request.

Authorities said Marines and sailors are not the only servicemen suspected of smuggling.

California National Guard soldier David A. Garzon, 27, was assigned to the Calexico port of entry to assist customs inspectors in checking commercial trucks entering the United States from Mexico.

Garzon, 27, was removed from his position this year after National Guard officials learned he was the subject of a federal investigation into corruption at the border.

Spokesman Maj. Stanley Zezotarski said, “The federal authorities told us Garzon was under investigation for drug smuggling and we took him off the line. Later on, Garzon found out he was being investigated and dropped out of sight.”

He is now a fugitive, and customs agents say they want to question him about a cocaine shipment of more than 1,000 pounds.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Smugglers’ Route

To avoid a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 5, some drug smugglers traveling north from Mexico, including some U.S. servicemen, have entered Camp Pendleton, authorities say. By using Basilone Road to exit the Marine base, they can reemerge on I-5 above the checkpoint.