European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 12, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday March 12. 1987 the stars and stripes Page 5 $1.5 pan am new York a Federal agents have smashed a ring of 19 current or former pan american world airways workers who allegedly smuggled si.5 Bil lion in cocaine into Kennedy inter National air on Over a sin year period authorities Laid tuesday. . Attorney Andrew Paloncy and other officials charged that members or the pan am conspiracy used their positions in passenger service agents to by pass customs in Brazil and the United states in addition 26 other employees of air lines at Kennedy have been charged with smuggling cocaine and marijuana As result of separate investigations officials said. They include 16 current or former pan am employees two Delta airlines workers and eight Eastern airlines work ers Paloncy chided Delta airlines for its Lack of cooperation while praising fan am. We Are steamed about this Malo nay said. Pan am chose to cooperate but Delia did not the 16 associated with pan am included Airport management personnel and passenger service agents at Kennedy and in Rio de Janeiro officials said. Cocaine ring smashed Eastern Delta employees arrested forty of the 4i suspects were taken into custody in raid at the Airport and around the new York City area tuesday and in scattered arrests Lait week. Assist ant . Attorney Thomas Roche said. Usually we re trying to catch people who Are trying to beat the  said Robert m. Slutman. Special agent in charge or the drug enforcement administration in new York. These people were the system and they became Cor  it is clearly one of the biggest operations of its kind said Robert Stulman of the Dea s new York office. He said there was no evidence of a link 10 organized crime. The ring allegedly carried cocaine from Brazil to Kennedy and from there distributed it in new York san Francis co los Angeles Las vegas Denver bos ton Chicago St Louis Atlantic City n.j., Miami and Montreal Stulman said authorities estimate the ring smuggled More than 200 pounds of cocaine a month for the past six years an amount with an estimated total Street value of $1.5 billion. An informant told Dea agents that in i98j and 1984 there were regular parties at pan am s Clipper club which were hosted by pan am employees and Fea tured abundant quantities of cocaine according to an affidavit. Pan am officials said some employee shave been cooperating to break the ring. Those pan am employees charge today represent Only a very Small Seg ment of the company s work Force at Kennedy Airport Martin r. Shugrue chief executive officer of pan am said Ina statement. Their actions in no Way compromised the safety or integrity of the airline s Day to Day operation. Aart Vancorl who is accused of being the ringleader is a . Citizen living inthe Netherlands. He was arrested with his brother Christianus Vanwort in new York last week. Aart Vanwort retired from pan am in 1984 and bought his Home in the nether lands for $350,000 Cash authorities said. Agents discovered More than $65,000in a Safe in the vanworts1 hotel room and $300,000 in a Safe Deposit Box used by Aart Vanwort. More than 1300,000 was seized from another organization member monday Aart Vanwort is accused of operating a continuing criminal Enterprise and could be jailed for life if convicted. Other members of the ring could he imprisoned for 20 years and fined up to $250,000 on conviction. An informant working with Authori-1lies for inc past year provided much of the information against the conspirators according loan affidavit tiled by Dea agent William Klein and port authority police detective Michael e. Molina in 1981, the informant following Van wort s instructions look a pan am Jet to Rio de Janeiro picked up a suitcase holding 33 to 45 pounds of cocaine an turned in Over to a pan am baggage agent in Brazil the affidavit said. The informant who was paid Between $ 10,000 and $30,000 for the trip flew Back to new York but did not claim the suitcase. Airline workers who worked forthe ring took the bags to an area they controlled and removed the contents later the affidavit said because the passenger service agents were Well known to the . Customs inspectors the suitcases were never exam ined the affidavit said the agents said other sources linked the seizure of 67 pounds of cocaine at the Airport last May to the pan am ring. Guard foils Jailbreak try of former race Driver Macclenny Fla. A a former race cabdriver accused of drug smuggling threw a stinging mix of hot sauce and liquid Cleanser in a guard s face tues Day and began scaling a Fence before a warning shot halted the escape attempt authorities said the guard recovered and fired the shot As Johnpaul St. Was beginning to climb the 12-foot Fence and As another prisoner who also tossed inc mixture eared its top said Baker county sheriffs investigator Archit. Roberson. They dropped off the Fence pretty Quick an they went to the ground Roberson said. The escape attempt could jeopardize a Pica bar gaining agreement that was being negotiated for Paul authorities said. We ordinarily prosecute escapes said assist ant . Attorney Tom Morris. He said there still was a possibility a Pica agreement could be worked out but an escape attempt would result in the government requesting additional jail time Paul 48, convicted of trying to Kilt a witness in drug Case was being held at the county Jait pending disposition of several Federal charges. Janice Singer an Atlanta attorney who s Bee helping represent Paul said in Federal court March 3 that Paul would plead guilty to tax evasion Mari Juana smuggling and false passport charges Stem Ming from indictments in Jacksonville Miami an Atlanta. The Federal charges in Jacksonville allege that photo John Paul or. Lends advice to John Paul jr., his co Driver in 1982 when the two raced As a team. Paul and his son race car Driver John Paul jr., and several other people conspired to smuggle 200,000pounds of marijuana into the United Stales from 1975w1981. In january Paul or. Was sentenced in St. Augus Tine to 20 Yean in prison on a state charge Oral tempted murder in is. Johns county. He had pleaded guilty last june in a plea bargain agreement to a charge that a tried to murder Federal drug witness Steve Carson in april 1983,As Perl of that agreement Paul or s stale Lerm will run concurrently with any Federal prison sen tence and the sentence will be served in Federal  and Gary Wayne Fowier who had been held at the jail since december on a lesser charge each squirted shampoo bottles filed with Pine sol Blac Pepper hoi sauce and hoi water it the tone guard in the jail s recreation Yard said Roberson the guard was wearing eyeglasses he said. A stolen pickup truck was in the parking Loi out Side the jail Yard with its keys inside Roberson said. I m sure the truck was left for them he said. After the attempted escape Fowler and Paul were put in lock Down Roberson said. The younger Paul was sentenced in May to five years in Federal prison after pleading guilty 10 racketeering in a plea bargain  and his son won five consecutive racing Vic tories As a team in 1981 and 1982, the longest consecutive Streak in the history of the Camel it. They operated jul racing inc. In Lawrenceville a. Guns kill 26,442 in Calif in seven year study period Sands of time Sacramento Calif. A guns have become California s eighth leading cause of death and 95 percent of the kill Ings arc intentional according to univer sity researchers who conducted a seven year study of 26,442 gunshot deaths in the state Between 1977 and 1983, 48 percent were suicide 47 percent were murder 3 per cent were accidental and the remaining2 percent were of undetermined causes according to the study released tuesday by the University of California Davis medical Center in Sacramento. The study published in the March Issue of the Western journal of medi Cine shows firearms were the major fac Tor in homicide deaths generally and the no. I. Cause of death in suicides. It found 64 percent of those killed by guns were male. Firearms were the leading cause of death among Black males in the is to 34-agc group. In fact the study said the gunshot death rate for Blacks both male and female was As much As 10 times greater than for other racial groups. Or. Carn Wintemute co author of the study which was based on death certificates said if Only 3 percent of fire Arm deaths Are accidental safely Educa Tion won t improve the situation  i Mcmutch a family practitioner who said he did not set out to reinforce any particular Point of View added that the government should reduce the Avail ability of firearms make them More difficult to obtain and phase Oul All guns that Are easily  he also suggests a ban on All firearms that can be convened to automatic weapons. In the stars and stripes 40 years ago today. March 12, 1947 soaring wheat prices hit the consumer with bread costing from 1 to 3 cents a loaf More in several cities. An Atlanta grocery announced the sharpest Advance a 3-Ccnt boost to 17 cents fora 24-Ouncc loaf. 30 years ago today March 12, 1957 the japanese government which had asked Britain three limes to Call off the Christmas Island Hydrogen bomb experiments also appealed to soviet Russia to suspend its nuclear tests. 20 years ago today. March 12, 967 exactly 14 years after her father s death. Svitlana Stalin. Daughter of russian dictator Josef Stalin hid in Switzerland after a dramatic flight Lof Reedom which first took her to India and Italy. 10 years ago today. March 12,1977 the ambassadors of three moslem nations persuaded Hanafi moslem gunmen to surrender free 124 hostages and end a 39-hour ordeal that began when the gunmen seized 3 buildings in Washington d.c., killed a reporter and wounded 8 people