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TAVARES — As authorities trumpeted arrests in the largest pot bust in Lake County in five years, investigators said they would seek forfeitures of two planes, three pickup trucks and $30,000 confiscated by deputy sheriffs who found nearly 800 pounds of marijuana at the Umatilla airport.
The case is notable in another respect: Two of the suspects have hired high-profile lawyers, Cheney Mason, a member of Casey Anthony's defense team, and Donald Lykkebak, who defended lovesick astronaut Lisa Nowak.
Deputy sheriffs estimated the street value of the marijuana cache at $800,000. Two pilots and a woman accompanying them — all of Orlando — were arrested at the rural Lake County airport about 3:45 a.m. Sept. 20 and charged with trafficking marijuana.
"It's significant and right up there" with the biggest pot seizures by Lake deputies in the past 10 years but the largest within the county's borders in the past five years, sheriff's Lt. John Herrell said Thursday.
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The discoveries occurred as deputies followed up a tip from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about two small planes headed to Lake County under suspicious circumstances from a reputed drug area in south Texas.
The planes reportedly touched down after midnight Sept. 20 on the small airfield.
Herrell said the investigation was a collaborative effort among deputies, Umatilla police, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which had red-flagged two planes that left Texas without filing flight plans.
He said federal officials will handle the forfeitures. Defense lawyers said the case also may be prosecuted in federal court.
The suspects were identified as Christopher Shirley, 35, a self-employed real-estate agent; his fiancee Meagan Brower, 26, who described herself as a single mom and spokesmodel at automobile trade shows; and businessman Michael Lwin, 33.
Shirley has previously been convicted of drug offenses. Brower and Lwin have no criminal record.
Held at the Lake County Jail without bail for nine days, all three were freed Wednesday after their lawyers persuaded Circuit Judge G. Richard Singeltary to grant conditional releases. Shirley and Lwin had to turn over their pilot licenses and passports.
All three also had to prove the money they would offer as bond was not part of a criminal enterprise.
Shirley's father, a retired bank executive in Brooksville who arranged to post bail for his son and Brower, cited millions of dollars in personal assets.
Lwin testified that he earns about $100,000 a year through several business ventures in the Orlando area, including acting as a consultant for a shooting range and serving as operations officer for a company that sells a blanket designed to keep pets off furniture.
According to a search-warrant affidavit obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, the aircraft "were deemed suspicious" by federal agents because the small-engine planes were flying from the purported drug area under visual flight rules, a technique that does not require the pilots to file a flight plan with the Federal Aviation Administration.
Authorities found no marijuana in one of the planes. That aircraft, according to an FAA registry, is owned by Vector Aviation LLC in Orlando, a business that lists Lwin as its registered agent, according to state records.
According to the search warrant, Shirley said he was the pilot of that plane. Shirley, Lwin and Brower told deputies they had flown from Alabama, where they had celebrated Brower's birthday and were unaware of a second plane. Deputies called that information "false."
Deputies, using a dog trained to sniff out drugs, found the second aircraft in a nearby hangar.
According to the search warrant, authorities had obtained the tail numbers of both aircraft from an employee at an airfield in Abbeville, La., who said both pilots had stopped for fuel there and had paid in cash.
Deputies found four duffel bags of pot in the second plane, registered to a company in Nevada.
Deputies declined to identify the owners of the two trucks in which marijuana was found. The third truck is owned by Lwin.
A spokesman for the DEA declined comment Wednesday.
Shirley also was charged with illegal possession of steroids. Authorities said they found a partial bottle of a drug used to stimulate hormone growth inside a cooler on the airplane that Shirley claimed to have flown.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed:420 MAGAZINE
Source
rlandosentinel.com
Author: Stephen Hudak
Contact: Contact OrlandoSentinel.
Copyright: 2010 Orlando Sentinel
Website:Feds to seek forfeiture of planes, trucks and cash linked to 800 pounds of marijuana at Umatilla airport
The case is notable in another respect: Two of the suspects have hired high-profile lawyers, Cheney Mason, a member of Casey Anthony's defense team, and Donald Lykkebak, who defended lovesick astronaut Lisa Nowak.
Deputy sheriffs estimated the street value of the marijuana cache at $800,000. Two pilots and a woman accompanying them — all of Orlando — were arrested at the rural Lake County airport about 3:45 a.m. Sept. 20 and charged with trafficking marijuana.
"It's significant and right up there" with the biggest pot seizures by Lake deputies in the past 10 years but the largest within the county's borders in the past five years, sheriff's Lt. John Herrell said Thursday.
Advertisement
The discoveries occurred as deputies followed up a tip from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about two small planes headed to Lake County under suspicious circumstances from a reputed drug area in south Texas.
The planes reportedly touched down after midnight Sept. 20 on the small airfield.
Herrell said the investigation was a collaborative effort among deputies, Umatilla police, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which had red-flagged two planes that left Texas without filing flight plans.
He said federal officials will handle the forfeitures. Defense lawyers said the case also may be prosecuted in federal court.
The suspects were identified as Christopher Shirley, 35, a self-employed real-estate agent; his fiancee Meagan Brower, 26, who described herself as a single mom and spokesmodel at automobile trade shows; and businessman Michael Lwin, 33.
Shirley has previously been convicted of drug offenses. Brower and Lwin have no criminal record.
Held at the Lake County Jail without bail for nine days, all three were freed Wednesday after their lawyers persuaded Circuit Judge G. Richard Singeltary to grant conditional releases. Shirley and Lwin had to turn over their pilot licenses and passports.
All three also had to prove the money they would offer as bond was not part of a criminal enterprise.
Shirley's father, a retired bank executive in Brooksville who arranged to post bail for his son and Brower, cited millions of dollars in personal assets.
Lwin testified that he earns about $100,000 a year through several business ventures in the Orlando area, including acting as a consultant for a shooting range and serving as operations officer for a company that sells a blanket designed to keep pets off furniture.
According to a search-warrant affidavit obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, the aircraft "were deemed suspicious" by federal agents because the small-engine planes were flying from the purported drug area under visual flight rules, a technique that does not require the pilots to file a flight plan with the Federal Aviation Administration.
Authorities found no marijuana in one of the planes. That aircraft, according to an FAA registry, is owned by Vector Aviation LLC in Orlando, a business that lists Lwin as its registered agent, according to state records.
According to the search warrant, Shirley said he was the pilot of that plane. Shirley, Lwin and Brower told deputies they had flown from Alabama, where they had celebrated Brower's birthday and were unaware of a second plane. Deputies called that information "false."
Deputies, using a dog trained to sniff out drugs, found the second aircraft in a nearby hangar.
According to the search warrant, authorities had obtained the tail numbers of both aircraft from an employee at an airfield in Abbeville, La., who said both pilots had stopped for fuel there and had paid in cash.
Deputies found four duffel bags of pot in the second plane, registered to a company in Nevada.
Deputies declined to identify the owners of the two trucks in which marijuana was found. The third truck is owned by Lwin.
A spokesman for the DEA declined comment Wednesday.
Shirley also was charged with illegal possession of steroids. Authorities said they found a partial bottle of a drug used to stimulate hormone growth inside a cooler on the airplane that Shirley claimed to have flown.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed:420 MAGAZINE
Source
rlandosentinel.comAuthor: Stephen Hudak
Contact: Contact OrlandoSentinel.
Copyright: 2010 Orlando Sentinel
Website:Feds to seek forfeiture of planes, trucks and cash linked to 800 pounds of marijuana at Umatilla airport
