More than half of the people arrested on the North Olympic Peninsula in “B.C. bud” marijuana investigations this year have pleaded guilty to drug charges.
The most recent pleas came Tuesday in Clallam County Superior Court, when Canadians Walter J. Tribe, 34, and Dennis Salvador, 32, admitted their guilt on charges of marijuana possession with intent to deliver.
The men, along with a third person, were found adrift in a disabled 16-foot boat in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, west of Port Angeles, last January, with two large hockey bags floating in the water next to them, authorities reported at the time.
Salvador was sentenced to time he has already served, including 19 days in the Clallam County jail, and a $10,000 fine, $8,000 of which he paid to the county Tuesday.
Tribe’s sentencing is set for Dec. 17 in Superior Court.
A third defendant in the case, Lance Q. Bolton, 29, is scheduled to be tried Jan. 3 in Superior Court. He is also charged with one count of marijuana possession with intent to deliver.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tim Davis said all three men were offered the same plea agreement, which includes a recommended sentence of a large fine and credit for jail time served, or a minimal fine and three months in jail.
The standard sentencing range for Salvador and Tribe, who also spent 19 days in the Clallam County jail, is zero to six months, Davis said.
19 arrested this year
Nineteen people, including one man suspected in two separate incidents, have been arrested by local and federal authorities since the beginning of 2004 in B.C. bud investigations.
Agents with the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team say the suspects have taken part in smuggling the potent marijuana from Vancouver Island into the United States across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, often using small boats and landing on Clallam’s remote shoreline west of Joyce.
