DEA rewards trial assistance
Blaine, Ketchum get $700,000 in drug forfeiture money
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
The Blaine County Sheriff?s Office and Ketchum Police Department were each awarded $700,000 this month for contributions they made toward prosecuting a large, federal drug smuggling case.
U.S. Attorney Tom Moss, representatives of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service handed Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling a check for $715,471.57 during a function in Coeur d?Alene on Thursday, Sept. 23. Ketchum received a check for the same amount on Sept. 8.
The checks are the local agencies? shares of assets forfeited by international drug smugglers Michael G. and Paul E. Miller, both Hawaii residents. The sheriff?s office had already received more than $300,000 from forfeitures in related cases.
Another check for $673 was presented to the Meridian Police Department for their help on the case.
The money can be used for a variety of law enforcement purposes, including drug prevention and education and narcotics investigations.
According to Ketchum Assistant Police Chief Mike McNeil, the Ketchum Police Department plans to use part of the money to establish a consolidated records system, to improve the department?s computer systems and on training and other equipment.
Moss said equitable sharing of money is designed to encourage and reward cooperative law enforcement.
?Asset forfeiture laws take the profit out of crime, and equitable sharing returns it to our communities,? he said.
The forfeitures stem from a decade-long investigation into a loose-knit drug trafficking and money laundering operation with ties to Sun Valley. Agents of the DEA and IRS, assisted by the local agencies, followed a trial that began in Idaho and led around the world, with stops in Hong Kong, Fiji, Singapore, Switzerland, Australia, Bali and Thailand.
On April 10, 1997, a federal grand jury in Idaho handed down an 85-count indictment charging the Millers with running a large-scale international drug smuggling operation since the early 1970s.
Michael Miller, now 54, of Oahu, Hawaii, and his younger brother, Paul Miller, 47, of Maui, Hawaii, eventually pled guilty, admitting they had imported tons of Thai marijuana into the United States.
The smugglers funneled the money into shell corporations in the United States and abroad, which in turn invested in real estate, stock and a variety of businesses.
The Millers? property included a 68-foot catamaran worth $750,000, $8.2 million in Quicksilver stock and expensive?residences and tracts of land in Fiji, Thailand and the Hawaiian Islands. They also invested $250,000 in what was then the Lift Haven Inn in Ketchum.
The same investigation ended in guilty pleas from a number of other defendants, including five involved in the construction and operation of the Sun Valley Athletic Club in Ketchum in the mid-1980s.
Former U.S. Attorney Betty Richardson first announced the forfeiture moneys in 1998. At that time, Ketchum and Blaine County were presented with checks in the amount of $75,000 for related prosecutions.
In a letter to Femling, Moss thanked local officers for helping prosecute the offenders.
?I enthusiastically commend the Blaine County Sheriff?s Office for your efforts, which went into this seizure,? he wrote. ?Please accept my heartfelt thanks for your continuing help and cooperation in the war against illegal drugs ? Please convey my deep appreciation to your fine staff.?
