FUGITIVE MARIJUANA SUSPECT ARRESTED

SEATTLE (AP) - A former champion skier charged with conspiring to import 37
tons of marijuana was arrested in Denver after 23 years on the run.

Michael Lund, now about 65, was arrested Tuesday by U.S. marshals. He was
held in a federal detention center near Littleton, Colo., and will face
charges in Seattle.

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

Williams would not say how federal authorities found him in Denver, but the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer quoted unidentified criminal justice sources as
saying they were alerted by a child-support problem.

In 1975, Lund was a world 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 about
130 miles southwest of Cape Flattery. In the freighter's hold were dozens
of bales of marijuana, valued at $74 million.

Federal investigators said at the time 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.

A flotilla of boats was purchased to carry out the scheme, according to
affidavits. A tugboat and barge that federal authorities say Lund bought
with a bag of cash were believed to be headed toward the Helena Star when
the Coast Guard moved in.

The freighter was seized, but Lund, then 42, disappeared.

Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Tom O'Brien confirmed Wednesday
that the 1978 pot seizure was the largest ever made by the agency's Seattle
office.

"We're looking at a gathering of retired agents for the trial," O'Brien
quipped.

Lund paid $230,000 for the Joli, which was renowned in Puget Sound yachting
circles for winning international races.

The case stretched to the San Francisco Bay Area, where a wealthy 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 indicted on charges of conspiracy to
import marijuana. Both were convicted.