DE PERE RESTAURANT OWNERS INDICTED IN MONEY LAUNDERING, TAX EVASION
CASE

The owners of a De Pere restaurant were indicted Wednesday by a federal
grand jury on money laundering and tax evasion charges for allegedly
laundering more than $200,000 in marijuana sale profits through the
restaurant in the early 1990s.

Prosecutors also filed papers in federal court in Milwaukee seeking the
forfeiture of the restaurant, Pasquales International Restaurant in De
Pere, as well as a home in Green Bay and a farm outside Seymour allegedly
used for large-scale marijuana operations.

The indictment alleges that Robert W. Evans, 44, of Seymour, and Peter J.
Tragos, 53, of De Pere, created two companies in 1992 to operate Pasquales
and funneled money Evans earned from his marijuana sales into the
restaurant.

Evans was charged in 1994 with operating a large, indoor marijuana-growing
business at a Town of Seymour farm after authorities, using a thermal image
device, found unusual heat loss patterns coming from a farm building
housing the automated growing operation.

Charged with manufacturing a controlled substance, possession with the
intent to deliver marijuana and possession of drugs without a state drug
stamp, Evans pleaded no contest to possession of marijuana with intent to
deliver and was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.

Evans was released from state prison in 1996, according to papers federal
prosecutors filed Wednesday seeking the forfeiture of a home he owns in the
400 block of Northern Ave. in Green Bay -- a home they say he used to grow
marijuana.

Federal prosecutors are also seeking forfeiture of the farm on County Trunk
Y in the Town of Seymour, and the land, building and fixtures at 305 Main
Ave. in De Pere housing Pasquales International Restaurant.

According to the indictment, the two opened Pasquales in 1992 after paying
cash for much of the restaurant equipment used there.

Evans' own records, the indictment says, shows he sold more than $500,000
in marijuana from 1991 through 1993.

Tragos, in addition to money laundering charges, is also charged with
obstruction of justice for allegedly altering sales ledgers and sales
invoices at Pasquales that were turned over to federal investigators.