FOUR CHARGED IN RING THAT SMUGGLED POT

Four men, including two from Lake County, were part of a group that smuggled
thousands of pounds of marijuana from Mexico to Northeast Ohio with the help
of border officials who looked the other way, drug agents say.

Charged with conspiracy are: William Perkins, 49, of Painesville; Nicholas
E. Estvanik, 57, of Willoughby Hills; Douglas E. Duncan, 50, of South
Carolina and formerly of Mentor; and Richard Thorp, 44, of Youngstown.

All but Perkins are jailed pending court hearings later this week.

"This involved significant amounts, very significant amounts," said
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph M. Pinjuh.

In affidavits filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, agents
from a local and federal drug unit said the investigation into the men
unfolded like this:

Informants said Duncan dealt marijuana in Northeast Ohio since about 1978
after obtaining it from the Southwest. He used various friends' homes and
later began using storage facilities to throw off police.

At one point, an informant said, Duncan would have 500 to 1,000 pounds of
marijuana shipped monthly to a friend, Andrew J. Mehall, of Geneva. In May,
Mehall was sentenced to five years in prison on drug charges. Mehall
purchased 510 pounds of marijuana from an informant for $399,950.

Duncan told an informant that "the people down south" had several people
working for them, including federal employees who helped get the marijuana
over the border. He said they never had a shipment intercepted.

Duncan also told the informant that "the people down south would not lose a
minute's sleep about having to kill someone," agents said in the affidavits.

According to informants, Duncan would send the shipments to Ohio and have
Estvanik, Perkins and Thorp distribute them. Once, in January 1998, Duncan
shipped 500 pounds of marijuana to Lake County, where an informant and
Estvanik split it.

Thorp was arrested Monday after going to an informant's house to pick up
$400,000 from a prior deal involving Duncan. The others were arrested later
in the day.

Pinjuh, the federal prosecutor, said authorities were investigating the
allegations that federal employees played a role in the drug ring.

The charges said Duncan lived with his father in Lake Wylie, S.C. He drove a
refurbished 1966 Corvette, a 2001 Corvette that cost $48,000 and a 1998
Chevy Tahoe, vehicles that federal prosecutors are seeking to seize.

The attorneys for the men could not be reached for comment late yesterday.