Spain Gives a U.S. Photographer 6 Years in Drug Trafficking Case
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An American freelance photographer was convicted today of drug trafficking and was sentenced to six years and one day in prison despite a personal plea on his behalf by Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d. An American freelance photographer was convicted today of drug trafficking and was sentenced to six years and one day in prison despite a personal plea on his behalf by Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d. A three-judge tribunal of the Barcelona Provincial Court said the prosecution had proved that the accused, Conan Owen, 23 years old, of Annandale, Va., knew there was cocaine in the suitcase he carried on a flight from Santiago, Chile, to Barcelona on March 13, 1987. Defense witnesses, including an assistant United States attorney and a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, testified that information obtained from a plea bargain agreement with a defendant in an American case showed that Mr. Owen had been used unwittingly as a courier for a Washington-based cocaine-smuggling ring. Mr. Owen told the court at his trial March 26 trial that he believed he was taking a suitcase full of tourist brochures from Washington to Santiago to Barcelona for a travel agency that had hired him for a four-day freelance photo assignment. Lieutenant in Army Reserve More : query.nytimes.com |