EX-SKI CHAMPION ARRESTED IN '70S MARIJUANA CASE

SEATTLE - A former world champion skier who disappeared 23 years ago after
being accused of trying to smuggle 37 tons of marijuana into the Northwest
has been captured in Denver, tripped up by a dispute over child support.

Michael Lund, now about 65, was arrested Tuesday by federal marshals. He
was held in Colorado and will face charges in Seattle.

"He's been in the wind for 23 years," U.S. Marshals supervisor Jack
Williams said Thursday. "We had no information on his new ID or his new life."

Authorities found Lund after he was arrested May 11 under the name Steven
Malex McCain of Santa Barbara, Calif., for contempt of court stemming from
a child support case. The dispute was filed last Sept. 22 in Wyoming and
transferred to a Colorado court.

"McCain" was sentenced to several days in jail and released on Monday. He
was fingerprinted while in jail. The FBI matched the prints to Lund, and
marshals tracked him to a motel in the Denver area.

In 1975, Lund was a champion in the ballet category of freestyle skiing and
was credited with helping to create a professional freestyle skiers'
association.

On April 17, 1978, a Coast Guard cutter intercepted the Helena Star, a
freighter, about 130 miles southwest of Washington's Cape Flattery. In the
hold were bales of marijuana valued at $74 million.

At the time, federal investigators said the crew planned to use Lund's
61-foot racing sloop, the Joli, to bring the load ashore at Lund's home on
Sequim Bay, about 50 miles northwest of Seattle.

The sloop was renowned in Puget Sound yachting circles for winning
international races. Authorities said a flotilla of other boats was
purchased to carry out the marijuana scheme.

A tugboat and barge that authorities say were owned by Lund were believed
to be headed toward the Helena Star when the Coast Guard moved in. The
freighter was seized.

Lund, then 42, disappeared.

The case stretched to the San Francisco Bay area, where lawyer Robert Leo
Moran was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and fined $10,000 for
laundering $1.2 million in drug-deal proceeds through Cayman Island accounts.

The Helena Star's captain, Roman Ferrer Rubies of Spain, and first mate,
Pedro Zuniga Vera of Colombia, were convicted of conspiracy to import
marijuana.

Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Tom O'Brien said the marijuana
seizure was the largest ever made by the agency's Seattle office.