NEWARK, N.J., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A member of a prominent New York family was identified as a key figure in an alleged drug ring run out of an abandoned nuclear missile silo in Kansas.
Stefan Wathne, 39, was arrested last month at a Newark, N.J., airport after three years on the run from charges stemming from a major LSD trafficking ring.
The New York Post said Monday that Wathne, a one-time trustee of the American Ballet Theater, was accused of laundering nearly $3 million between 1996 and 2002. The charges were made after the leader of the ring, William Leonard Pickard, was arrested after narcotics agents found an LSD lab secreted in an old missile silo outside Topeka, Kan.
The case resulted in a massive federal grand jury indictment out of San Francisco.
Wathne allegedly skipped town and was living in Russia for a time, the Post said. He had been arrested in India last year and voluntarily returned to the United States Jan. 7 to face charges that could send him to prison for 20 years.
