CREW RESCUED FROM BURNING POT BOAT

NEAH BAY, Wash. (AP) The Coast Guard rescued three men from a burning
sailboat early Monday and then spotted marijuana bales floating in the
water, leading to their arrest.

By late afternoon authorities had retrieved 1,850 pounds of pot with an
estimated street value of $7.4 million, the Coast Guard said.

"Some is wet, some is burned," spokesman Mike Milne of the U.S. Customs
Service said of the approximately 100 marijuana bales or bale fragments
recovered. "It's a mess."

The sailboat the 60foot OK Tedi sank. The cause of the fire was
under investigation.

The three men were held on charges of possession of marijuana aboard
vessels and attempted importation of a controlled substance, Milne said.

The sailboat caught the Coast Guard's attention just after midnight when it
was spotted without any running lights five miles west of Cape Flattery,
where the Pacific meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Coast Guard spokeswoman
Martha LaGuardia said.

Coast Guard officers had been in radio communication with the sailboat for
about 25 minutes when it caught fire, and the three men abandoned ship into
a life raft. The Coast Guard took them aboard a cutter and they were
brought ashore.

The marijuana was packaged in 90pound bales wrapped in a synthetic burlap,
Milne said.

Arrested were John Benjamin Ricker, about 30; Jim Garvorcauskas, also known
as James Garbo, 43; and Amir Humanta Llumbantobing, 48, an Indonesian
national.

Copyright 1997 Associated Press.