Smuggler’s Hideaway for Sale Again

Deep in the chaparral-covered hills of southeast Orange County lies a hidden landmark in the nation’s war on drugs: Rancho del Rio, a rambling hacienda and former enclave of an international marijuana smuggling ring.

The 188-acre ranch once belonged to Daniel James Fowlie, a surfer and artist, whom police suspected of having ties to the Brotherhood of Eternal Love in Laguna Beach during the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Drug guru and Harvard University psychologist Timothy Leary founded the group.

Six years after narcotics agents seized his beloved Verdugo Canyon ranch, Fowlie was convicted in federal court in 1991 on more than a dozen drug charges. The judge imposed a $1-million fine and sent him to prison for 30 years.

From the ranch’s rustic grounds, President George Herbert Walker Bush delivered a major drug speech in 1989 that was broadcast nationally. More than 1,500 prominent citizens, high-ranking law enforcement officials and local politicians attended the event.

Today, Rancho del Rio is in the hands of the Girl Scout Council of Orange County. But the property, bought by the organization for more than $2 million in 1991, has proven ill-suited for overnight camping and other outdoor activities for its 28,000 members.

Citing the lack of utilities and the high cost of upgrading the ranch buildings, the council has decided to sell the property. Money from the sales of Thin Mints, Tagalongs and Do-si-do cookies would be better spent on something else, scouting officials say.

“I’ve mixed emotions,” said Suzanne Huffmon Esber, chairwoman of the council’s board of directors, who admired the quiet and seclusion of the sprawling ranch during a recent tour. “It is a wonderful asset, but the other side tells me we have a responsibility to the organization.”

When the scouts bought Rancho del Rio, it was viewed as a refreshing and upbeat finale to Fowlie’s near dominance of the West Coast marijuana trade during the 1980s.

For years, authorities said, the Fowlie organization used the ranch as a headquarters and processing center for marijuana and lesser amounts of cocaine that were smuggled from Mexico aboard big rigs and tanker trucks.

Fowlie, whose ring involved his two sons and a shell company in the Netherlands to launder profits, lost the ranch and ultimately his freedom in an odd sequence of events that began about 2 a.m. one night in February 1985.

That evening, the ranch foreman went on a drug binge in Laguna Beach and began shooting a gun into the darkness. Upon investigating, sheriff’s deputies found $73,000 in cash and a 50-pound bale of marijuana in the Laguna home where the foreman was staying.

The investigation led deputies to the remote ranch, which is off Ortega Highway near Ronald W. Caspers Regional Park. Access to the property is a private road that crosses Rancho Mission Viejo Co. land.

Fowlie headed south of the border and was arrested two years later by Mexican authorities in Puerto Escondido, a coastal town south of Acapulco. It is dubbed the “Mexican Pipeline” because of its fast, curling surf.

Although Fowlie was supposed to be in a La Paz prison fighting extradition, he ran a real estate business, went sport fishing and regularly visited his beachfront home during four-day passes from jail.

The furloughs gave him time to display his oil paintings of game fish and marine fowl in the popular resort town of Cabo San Lucas, where he was known to hoteliers, restaurateurs, lawyers and sportsmen. While in prison, he painted a long-eared horned owl for former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

In July 1990, to his disbelief, Fowlie was extradited to the United States to face 26 felony charges. As he sat with federal agents aboard a U.S. Customs Service plane, he kept saying, “I can’t believe this is happening.” He finally arrived at John Wayne Airport and hobbled across the tarmac in handcuffs and shackles to an awaiting federal vehicle.

Throughout the extradition fight, his ranch remained under the control of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which planned to convert it into a regional drug enforcement training center.

The Board of Supervisors, however, balked at the proposal because of financial reasons and put Rancho del Rio up for auction. The Girl Scouts outbid a local real estate company.

The ranch has a wealth of amenities, and the setting’s live oak and sycamore are something out of old California. There are 24 buildings, some of them -- such as the main lodge with its breezeway, enclosed patio and adjoining guest quarters -- built of timber and river rock.

There is a wine cellar, a central rock barbecue, stables, dog kennels, and a vineyard and orchards now in extreme need of care.

Red Spanish tiles with mosaic trim cover the floors of the main lodge and guest quarters. There are big central fireplaces and open beam ceilings. A cast-iron stove is the centerpiece of the lodge’s “Cantina del Rio.”

Embedded in the brick and mortar chimney of the guest quarters are hand-painted tiles with a horseshoe crest that says, “Rancho del Rio.” The scarlet blooms from overgrown bougainvillea fill the central yard. Not far from the main lodge is a large green barn that contains a subterranean vault lined with fiberglass. Access is through a hatch in the concrete floor. Spider webs crisscross the dark passageway.

Fowlie claimed that the vault was a grape storage area for his winery, but authorities said it housed marijuana shipments that were brought into the barn in small panel trucks.

For five years, the Girl Scouts used the ranch as a day camping area that offered archery, cooking classes, hiking and nature studies. Then, the organization decided to close it in 2000.

Scouts and their families, officials said, thought the facility was too hard to reach. Plus, there was no potable water, electricity, sewer hookups, or building permits for the structures, which do not meet county codes. Officials concluded that the needed improvements might cost up to $6 million.

The problems and potential costs dashed hopes to turn the ranch into a year-round camp that would offer scouts a closer alternative to Camp Scherman, a 700-acre facility near Idyllwild.

After a three-year assessment of all the Girl Scout Council’s properties, the organization decided to put the ranch up for sale and plow the proceeds into other projects.

“It’s a lovely site,” said Jeannie Burns, chief executive officer of the council. “But a primitive camping site is no longer on the top of our priorities.”