WIRETAPS PRODUCE DRUG CHARGES

Albany -- Indictment Alleges Dirt Race Car Team Owner, Others, Sold
Hundreds of Pounds of Marijuana

The owner of a racing team at the Lebanon Valley Speedway and six others
are facing federal charges that they sold hundreds of pounds of marijuana
in the Capital Region and western Massachusetts.

Closing a yearlong federal wiretap investigation, authorities arrested
seven people -- one in New York, three in Massachusetts and three in
Arizona -- last week, and also seized cars, cash and real estate worth more
than $1 million. A federal grand jury indicted the suspects Wednesday.

On Thursday, two men -- Thomas Overbaugh, 40, owner of Overbaugh
Motorsports who lives in Hancock, Mass., and Bernard O'Neil, of Stephentown
- -- pleaded not guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to
possess and sell marijuana.

Federal agents said they found $262,972 in cash stored behind a wall in the
Rensselaer County home that O'Neil rents from Overbaugh. The government
plans to seize the Stephentown property, a mountaintop estate estimated to
be worth more than $800,000.

Prosecutors said from 1998 to 2002 the men purchased between 400 and 700
pounds of Mexican-grown marijuana from a man in Arizona, who would
periodically deliver the drugs to a "stash house" in the Columbia County
town of New Lebanon. The local men allegedly sold the marijuana in
multiple-pound bundles to local drug dealers.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Randolph Treece set bail for Overbaugh and O'Neil at
$300,000. If convicted on the single count of conspiracy to sell drugs, the
men could face up to 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine.

Overbaugh, the father of two children ages 11 and 9, also is the owner of
Taconic Valley Trucking Co. in Pittsfield, a hauling company with about 40
employees serving upstate New York and western Massachusetts. The trucking
business has fallen deeply in debt, and Overbaugh "was using marijuana
money to make payroll at his business," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard
Hartunian said in court on Thursday.

Overbaugh's attorney, Dennis Schlenker of Albany, said last week's searches
had found no large quantities of drugs in Overbaugh's home and said the
government was pressing the flimsy case against Overbaugh "based on
relationships with people he has had over the years."

As the owner of a racing team, Overbaugh sponsors two dirt race car drivers
and employs a manager and crew members. The team fields entries at Lebanon
Valley and at racetracks throughout upstate New York.

Also included in the federal indictment were two Pittsfield, Mass.,
residents. Shane Power, 31, and Charles Smith, 41, appeared in federal
court in Springfield, Mass., on Wednesday and were released on $50,000 bail
pending their arraignment in Albany.

Three others from Tucson, Ariz. -- Kevin Driscoll, 41, his wife, Terry
Driscoll, 41, and James Womble, 41 -- are expected to appear today federal
court in Tucson and may be extradited to Albany to face the charges.