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Suspect arrested in murder of millionaire powerboat designer

MIAMI -- A self-described mercenary was arrested Tuesday in the 3-year-old slaying of millionaire boat designer Donald Aronow who was shot near his boat-building business in February 1987, police said.

Robert Young, 41, was arrested on a first-degree murder indictment returned in March by a Dade County grand jury, said detective Lizette Williams of the Metro-Dade County Police Department.

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'Aronow was murdered on February 3, 1987, and at the time the only information we had was that he was murdered by a person in a dark-colored Lincoln Town Car,' Williams said.

Investigators refused to release any information linking Young to Aronow's death. Young had been serving time in an Oklahoma jail on cocaine charges, but was brought back to Dade County to serve a sentence on an unrelated murder charge.

Young, who one of his attorneys, Fred Haddad, described as a 'soldier of fortune type,' was arrested and charged with the Aronow slaying while in the county jail.

Aronow's death stunned the boating and horse racing community. The owner of Apache Boats was a leading manufacturer of high performance boats, a powerboat racing champion and a horse racing enthusiast.

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He counted amoung his friends and clients President Bush, King Hussein of Jordan and King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Aronow, 59 at the time of his death, was the inventor of the Cigarette boat. He held the world champion powerboat racing title in 1967 and 1969.

However, his business also reportedly linked him to drug dealers and organized crime figures, including Meyer Lansky, the acknowledged financial wizard of organized crime.

'The way my father lived, it (the murder) could have been as casual as a handshake. ... It could have been international. It could have had to do with the CIA,' Michael Aronow, the victim's son, told The Miami Herald in April.

Shortly before the shooting, Aronow had bought back a boat-building business he had sold to Benjamin Barry Kramer, another world champion fast-boat millionaire now serving time on drug trafficking charges.

The business originally operated under the name USA Racing Team, but Kramer changed its name to Apache. The company's main business was the construction of high performance 35-foot catamarans for the U.S. Customs Service, which used the crafts to catch boats running drugs into south Florida.

After customs officials learned that Kramer -- then just a suspected drug dealer -- had bought the company, Kramer was forced to sell the company back to Aronow at a loss. The sale reportedly ruined the men's relationship.

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Aronow, a self-made millionaire, retired in 1958 at age 31 from his building contracting company in New Jersey and joined the powerboat business.

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