MARIJUANA SMUGGLER GETS 20-YEAR SENTENCE

Jail heroics and other factors don't significantly help Thomas G. Sherrett,
convicted in Oregon's largest such marijuana case

Thomas G. Sherrett made millions of dollars smuggling about 400,000 pounds
of marijuana into the United States, but he wasn't anyone's stereotypical
drug kingpin, his lawyer told a federal judge at a sentencing hearing
Wednesday.

A key point in Sherrett's favor is that after his arrest he helped rescue a
Multnomah County Justice Center corrections deputy as inmates punched,
kicked and possibly tried to hang the man in a 1995 outbreak.

Even after receiving credit for those heroics and other factors,
Sherrett's sentence came to nearly 20 years in prison. The sentencing ends
Oregon's largest marijuana smuggling case and caps a life of marijuana
involvement that authorities think they can trace to the late 1960s, when
Sherrett was a student at the University of Oregon.

The government had asked for more than 26 years in prison for Sherrett,
basing the proposed sentence on activities that covered less than two years
before 1988. That was when drug investigators learned almost by accident
that the Oregon man was an international marijuana smuggler who moved
easily between Portland and Asia.

Sherrett pleaded guilty in November to 135 counts of drug trafficking and
money laundering. Although he had no criminal history, the government urged
U.S. District Judge James A. Redden to regard Sherrett, 50, not as a first
offender but as a career criminal who wasn't caught until he went to a
Portland hotel and handed over millions of dollars - an estimated 900
pounds of small bills - to undercover agents he thought were money
launderers. Redden sentenced him to 19 years, 7 months.

"By any measure, Thomas Sherrett ranks among the most prolific, financially
successful drug dealers ever investigated" in Oregon, Michael W. Mosman, a
deputy U.S. attorney, said in a sentencing memorandum. "Fueled by his
experience, acumen and ambition, tons upon tons of marijuana made their
clandestine entry on the West Coast of this country from the growing fields
of Southeast Asia."

In answer to defense attorney John S. Ransom's argument that Sherrett was
nonviolent, Mosman argued that so much marijuana did harm as a gateway drug.

There must be thousands of parents, he said, "who wish Thomas Sherrett had
got a real job and not have imported tons and tons of marijuana into this
country."

The sentencing hearing, which began Tuesday, did little to clarify the
complex picture of the man who:

Masterminded marijuana smuggling by the 13-ton shipload.

Lived in a $115,000 Eastmoreland home even though his first delivery of
money to be laundered consisted of $5,999,999 that he carried into the
former Lloyd Center Red Lion hotel.

Worked for $900 a month at a Portland refugee center, where he was regarded
as an excellent employee.

Maintained a series of false identities and passports while he went from
country to country, knowing he was under investigation.

The jail incident was an odd twist in Sherrett's history. Two inmates who
apparently were trying to escape had grabbed the keys of Deputy Jim Sawyer,
who was supervising their module, Deputy Don Bailey testified Wednesday.

Bailey testified that as he ran to help, the besieged deputy said the two
inmates were trying to kill him and they had handcuffed one of Sawyer's
hands. Sherrett held one of the attackers in a head lock, and Bailey was
able to carry the injured officer to safety. Bailey said corrections
deputies later found sheets tied together, leading officers to speculate
that inmates either planned to escape after taking a deputy hostage or to
hang the deputy.

Redden sentenced two of Sherrett's co-conspirators March 3. Sherrett's
companion, Thanh Hai Vominh, must serve five months in prison and five
months' house arrest for structuring an illegal financial transaction.
Redden sentenced Vominh's brother, Dr. Hiep Voquy, to probation for
violating financial transaction laws.

A third co-conspirator, Tan Vominh - Thanh Hai's husband - was sentenced
Feb. 23 to five years' probation, a $2,500 fine and four months of home
detention and work release, also for structuring.

The indictment to which Sherrett pleaded guilty names the Vominhs and
Voquy, and outlines foreign trips, multiple bank transactions and other
events from November 1986 through July 1988 as 13 tons of marijuana were
smuggled into California. Some was trucked to Oregon, from which it went to
New York and Missouri.

The conspiracy began, the indictment says, when Sherrett and others met in
Oceanside, Calif., and Portland to plan their drug smuggling.

In May 1987, Thanh Hai Vominh went to Hong Kong and Bangkok, Thailand, as
part of the scheme, the indictment says, and in June 1987 the plotters
outfitted two vessels - Free and Easy, and Rae Ann - with navigation and
electronic communication equipment at a ranch in Goleta, Calif.

The Free and Easy sailed from Catalina, Calif., to Hawaii in August or
September 1987, and the Rae Ann was in Hawaii. The two vessels rendezvoused
with a larger vessel off Hawaii, where marijuana was transferred to the
smaller boats. What didn't fit was thrown overboard.

About Oct. 15, Sherrett leased storage space at 2147 S.E. 10th St. in
Portland and made trips to California, where the marijuana was unloaded
near Santa Barbara and taken to a ranch and a house.

The indictment includes details of how the marijuana was moved and how the
money was hidden. It tells how Sherrett used a rental truck to take his
share of the marijuana. It gives details of how, in November 1987, more
marijuana was delivered to a Santa Barbara address.

The indictment goes through a series of foreign travels - Sherrett rented
an apartment in Bangkok on March 10, 1988 - and says that on March 16
Sherrett brought about $6 million to Portland. Tan Vominh made a series of
Portland bank deposits in amounts of as much as $41,000. Sherrett bought a
loose diamond for $18,000 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on July 11, 1988.

On July 21, 1988, Sherrett closed bank accounts in Hong Kong and
transferred $2,150,000 in various currencies to the Union Bank of
Switzerland.

Federal agents knew nothing of Sherrett until early 1988, when Brian Peter
Daniels, a marijuana supplier in Thailand, mentioned his name to undercover
agents as a major West Coast smuggler. An informant helped the agents set
up a meeting for the money laundering at the Red Lion, and Sherrett was on
the verge of being arrested.

But he disappeared.

As agents searched for Sherrett and further investigated his background,
they came to think he had been buying and selling marijuana as early as the
late 1960s, when he was a student in Eugene.

Sherrett was arrested in December 1993 in Switzerland when he mistakenly
handed the wrong set of false papers to immigration officials. Because drug
crimes that involve more than $10 million carry a longer sentence, the U.S.
attorney listed more than $11 million involved in Sherrett's various
conspiracies, although not all the money was his.

More than $6 million was handed over to the undercover agents, which
the government later seized. And $2.3 million was seized from a Swiss
account. Stock and jewelry taken from Sherrett's home totaled almost
$1 million, not counting the $18,000 diamond, which also was confiscated.