FORMER SKI STAR PLEADS GUILTY TO 20-YEAR-OLD DRUG CHARGES

SEATTLE - Former ski star Michael Lund has quietly pleaded guilty to
federal drug charges after more than 20 years on the lam. Lund, 65,
pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to
distribute marijuana.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Federal
prosecutors dropped related charges that could have added 15 years to
that.

Under a plea-bargain agreement, the government will recommend that
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour sentence Lund to three years in
prison on Nov. 16. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Friedman called the
deal a reasonable disposition of the case.

Lund - graying, balding and using reading classes to read court
documents - had been scheduled to stand trial Monday. "He pleaded
guilty because he is guilty," said his attorney, Richard Troberman.

Lund is the 10th and final person convicted in the Puget Sound area's
largest-ever pot bust - the Coast Guard seizure of 37 tons of
Colombian marijuana in 1978.

Lund acknowledged plotting in 1977-78 to bring a huge crop of
marijuana from Colombia aboard the freighter Helena Star for sale in
the United States.

He bought the 61-foot racing sloop Joli to ferry the pot from the
freighter to his home in Sequim. He also bought a barge and tug to
aid in the offloading.

In spring 1978, the Helena Star left for Washington state with 50
tons of pot worth roughly $75 million in its hold. Authorities say
Lund took the Joli to the freighter several times, carrying food and
supplies to the freighter and once returning to Sequim with what
court documents describe as "more than 1 ton of marijuana."

That April, the Coast Guard boarded the Helena Star - then 130 miles
off the state coast - and seized the 37 tons of pot. Members of the
crew were arrested, but Lund fled.

Decades ago, Lund was a world champion in the then-fledgling sport of
freestyle skiing. His specialty was the ballet category, and many
credit him with creating a professional association of freestyle
skiers.

When he fled Washington in 1978, Lund headed south. He worked in
construction and as a motel clerk. He had a fishing business in Santa
Barbara in the early 1980s and a glider business in Jackson Hole,
Wyo., nearly 10 years later.

Both ventures failed, and he declared bankruptcy in 1993.

Using the name Steven McCain, he remarried and had two sons. He left
the family after the second child's difficult birth, and he and his
wife divorced in 1990.

That failed marriage led to his arrest.

In May, his ex-wife took him to family court in Denver, saying he
owed child support for their now-teenage sons. A judge held him in
contempt, and Lund was fingerprinted.

After a computer matched McCain's prints to Lund, he was arrested by
federal marshals at a cut-rate Denver motel.