FUGITIVE HEROIN RING SUSPECT WHO LEFT AREA IN 1989 IS ARRESTED NEAR LAMBERT

After a dozen years, life as a federal fugitive has ended for Arthur
Smith Jr., a heroin ring suspect arrested as he dumped old shingles
near Lambert Field.

Smith, 55, was in federal custody pending a bail hearing Tuesday in
U.S. District Court.

Brian McKee, the deputy U.S. marshal who had been heading the search
for Smith, gave credit Wednesday to two Hazelwood police officers for
nabbing the fugitive.

On Monday, Officer Gerald Fitzgerald spotted Smith and another man in
a pickup, dumping debris along railroad tracks near Lindbergh
Boulevard, north of Lambert Field. Fitzgerald arrested the men after
they were unable to show any identification.

Smith told officers he was Lawrence Jones, but Fitzgerald and a police
booking officer, Dan Milner, became suspicious of Smith's demeanor and
decided to take his fingerprints. Through Smith's prints, police
learned he was a federal fugitive, McKee said.

Smith, whose nickname is "Blink," fled St. Louis in 1989, when he was
indicted as a member of a heroin ring operated in the 1980s by Noble
Bennett, convicted in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison. Of about
40 people charged in the case, Smith was the only fugitive,
authorities said.

Smith, who spent much of his time on the lam in the Chino, Calif.,
area, had been on the "top 10" wanted list of the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms stemming from a 1989 charge of being a felon in
possession of a firearm.

He is not charged as a leader of the Bennett drug ring.

Regardless, Smith has convictions - beginning in 1967 - for burglary,
armed robbery and drug crimes, according to a document filed in
federal court. Authorities had suspected Smith returned to St. Louis
about two years ago.