12 YEARS AFTER POT BUST, MAN PLEADS GUILTY

SANTA ROSA - More than 12 years after narcotics investigators found 340
pounds of processed marijuana in a barn west of Santa Rosa, a former Marin
County man has pleaded guilty in Sonoma County Superior Court to drug
charges connected with the case.

State drug agents said Craig Click Caughlan, 55, was part of a major
smuggling ring that brought marijuana and cocaine into the United States
from Mexico. Caughlan fled to Mexico after the Sonoma County bust in 1990
and has been living there ever since, authorities said.

Los Angeles police arrested Caughlan at Los Angeles International Airport
in June when he tried to enter the country.

Caughlan's attorney, Ken Wine, said his client didn't know he was wanted in
Sonoma County and said authorities never linked him to a major smuggling
ring. Wine said Caughlan has a furniture business in Mexico and founded an
environmental group in Puerto Vallarta.

Under terms of his plea, Caughlan isn't likely to serve prison time for
possession of marijuana for sale. Authorities never arrested anyone else in
connection with the alleged smuggling ring and he isn't charged with
conspiracy.

Caughlan, who was living in Mill Valley at the time of the bust, was the
target of an investigation by the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement,
according to court records. State agents obtained a search warrant from a
Santa Clara County judge based on an affidavit stating Caughlan was part of
a drug-smuggling conspiracy that operated in several western states,
bringing Mexican marijuana by private planes into small U.S. airports.

State narcotics agents followed Caughlan to several locations in Sonoma
County, including an airport near Schellville and a 15-acre farm on Hall
Road west of Santa Rosa. About a dozen state and Sonoma County narcotics
officers raided the Hall Road property in January 1990, finding Caughlan
with the processed marijuana inside a barn.

But Caughlan was released and no warrant was issued for his arrest for
almost two years.

Deputy District Attorney Alexander McMahon declined to say why the warrant
wasn't issued sooner, but he told Superior Court Judge Elliot Lee Daum that
Caughlan knew he was wanted in the United States.

Officials of the state Bureau of Narcotics didn't return calls for comment.

Caughlan could face three years in prison when he's sentenced Nov. 22, but
Daum indicated he'll impose probation and a county jail sentence.

Wine said Caughlan has turned his life around since moving to Mexico.

In additional to his woodworking business, he founded a nonprofit
environmental organization called La Limpieza de la Bahia de Banderas,
which sponsors yearly clean-ups at local beaches and rivers. Caughlan's
group works with Mexican schools and the country's secretary of education
to promote clean water programs, according to a Web site.