Suetaz

Penalty in drug case is $1 million

By Bill Estep | SOUTH-CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU | June 22, 2004

A judge has ordered an Arizona man who took part in importing thousands of pounds of marijuana into the London area to forfeit more than $1 million in cash and property and pay a judgment of $1 million, the office of U.S. Attorney Gregory F. Van Tatenhove announced yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves also sentenced Robert A. Dellheim, 61, of Waddell, Ariz,. to serve more than 11 years in prison and pay a fine of $100,000. Dellheim's wife, Brianna, 53, received a five-year sentence and a $25,000 fine.

The cash forfeiture against the couple is one of the largest ever in the Eastern District of Kentucky, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin Hatfield.

The million-dollar judgment handed down as part of the sentence doesn't mean Dellheim paid that, but that the government can move to collect it if investigators find he has assets beyond those already forfeited.

Reeves sentenced the couple Friday.

The case began when Kansas state police stopped the driver of a 1999 GMC pickup for traffic violations on Interstate 70 on April Fool's Day last year, according to a sworn statement from Officer Barry Adams, a Rockcastle County deputy assigned to a task force with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Police found 300 pounds of marijuana in luggage in the back of the pickup. The driver admitted he'd agreed to transport the marijuana from Arizona to a motel in London for $12,000; he was supposed to call the owners and say he was at the "wedding" when he got to London, Adams said in the affidavit.

Instead, police took over the load for what is called a "controlled delivery," and arrested three Kentucky men -- Donnie, Scott and Kenneth Lawson -- who took possession of the marijuana.

Those arrests led to Dellheim, who was part of a major interstate conspiracy to import marijuana from the Southwest to the London area, including to Donnie Lawson in Clay County, according to court documents.

Dellheim arranged to ship more than 6,100 pounds of marijuana to Kentucky from 1996 to April 2003, according to the documents.

It's not unusual for drug traffickers to bring Mexican marijuana to southeastern Kentucky even though the area is a major marijuana producer itself. The reason, police say, is that top-quality Kentucky marijuana is much in demand out of state; producers use the Mexican product as filler with Kentucky's to increase volume, or to sell after the Kentucky crop is gone.

After police arrested Dellheim at his house in Arizona last September, he told his wife in a phone call from jail to make sure she emptied their safe-deposit box or, "We are screwed."

When Brianna Dellheim returned home, police found four bank checks in her purse, made out to her, totaling $1 million, according to a court document.

The couple pleaded guilty on drug and obstruction of justice charges. They agreed to give up $1,055,006; two trucks, a car and a motorcycle; a 260-acre ranch in Arizona; and other property, including their house.

Several agencies helped investigate, including the DEA, the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force, the Internal Revenue Service and the Kentucky State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen C. Smith prosecuted.

[Suetaznote: And how much more money was wasted on this War on Drugs with all the law enforcement and government agencies that were involved in this case? It's not likely they got back more money than what they spent to get this judgement money. The media makes this out to look like a good haul for law enforcment, but they don't even mention how much money was spent on the case. More wasted money and wasted lives.]

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