Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990 TAG: 9003231767
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Thrasher's disappearance in late 1984 led to one of the nation's most successful drug investigations, culminating in the 1986 conviction of Gerardo Caballero, the son-in-law of Roberto Suarez, Bolivia's one-time "King of Cocaine."
Federal authorities in Roanoke, however, remain skeptical about Thrasher's reported death, and continue to list him as a fugitive on drug conspiracy and smuggling charges.
One jokester in the federal courthouse even passed out bumper stickers reading: "Wally phone home."
"I don't think we'll ever know for sure," said John Perry Alderman, the U.S. attorney in Roanoke.
But federal authorities in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., say Thrasher died in the plane crash Nov. 4, 1984. They are so certain he is dead that they included a brief description of the crash in an indictment of several Florida smugglers with whom Thrasher worked. The smugglers, led by Richard J. Sinnott, a Fort Pierce, Fla., flying service operator, pleaded guilty Feb. 27.
Thrasher is described in Sinnott's indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator who flew marijuana from Belize (formerly British Honduras) to the United States for Sinnott.
On Nov. 4, 1984, the indictment says, Thrasher died when his twin-engine Piper Navajo crashed into the jungle near Dangriga, Belize.
Federal authorities say Sinnott arranged for other drug pilots to bring some of Thrasher's personal effects and pieces of his airplane back to the United States. He did so, authorities said, so he could prove to Thrasher's wife, Olga, that her husband had died.
John Gisler, a Florida FBI agent involved in the Sinnott investigation, said the evidence of Thrasher's death is based largely on an eyewitness account.
Gisler wouldn't reveal the witness's name or details of what he said. But, Gisler said, he and other investigators believe the man's account because it is consistent with other evidence in the case.
The man was to have been a witness in Sinnott's trial, but his testimony wasn't necessary because of Sinnott's guilty plea.
Olga Thrasher, who also was to have been a government witness in the trial, said in a telephone interview that federal authorities identified the man as Angel John Zabaneh, a Belizean citrus and banana farmer once described by the Drug Enforcement Administration as "one of the godfathers of the illegal drug trade."
In 1985, the DEA snatched Zabaneh out of Guatemala and flew him to Texas, where he was convicted on charges of smuggling marijuana from Belize to the United States. He was paroled after about three years and returned to Belize. He agreed to cooperate in the Sinnott case.
Zabaneh could not be reached for comment in Belize. A woman at his home said he would not discuss the case over the telephone. Olga Thrasher and others familiar with the case say he told federal agents that he was at the jungle airport the day Thrasher crashed.
Authorities say Thrasher's plane was packed as tight as a cigarette with marijuana. It also was equipped with extra fuel tanks for the long flight back to the states.
Thrasher, 44, was an experienced pilot who cautiously checked his airplane before flights. His skill was obvious from the fact that he'd been a drug smuggler for more than a decade. An earlier brush with death came in 1974 when Mexican authorities forced his plane down in El Cubru, Mexico. He spent two years in a Mexican jail until friends reportedly paid a hefty ransom to free him.
On Nov. 4, 1984, people familiar with the case say, Thrasher took longer than usual to run through preflight checks. He taxied along the runway, stopped and checked his plane again. He then got back in, poured power to the engines and climbed over the jungle. A couple of hundred feet up, an engine failed, possibly because the plane was overloaded. The plane rolled violently out of control and crashed, exploding in a fiery mixture of fuel and marijuana.
The fire blazed for hours, and Thrasher's body reportedly was burned to ashes. Thrasher's wedding ring and other personal effects were taken from his body and later given to Olga Thrasher.
Olga Thrasher doubted the death report at the time, but she now says she believes it. The only thing she questions is how the crash occurred. She said her husband was too good a pilot to have taken off overloaded.
Despite her cooperation in the Sinnott case, and in others, she said, the government hasn't offered to help her find her husband's body and return it to the United States.
She said she may try to do it on her own. She wants his body positively identified and wants to give him a proper burial.
If so, it will be the second memorial service she has held for her husband.
The first was in Pulaski County in November 1984 shortly after he disappeared. She said at the time that friends told her that her husband had been killed in a plane crash in the Caribbean. She later obtained a fake Jamaican death certificate saying her husband had died in a "tragic accident."
The 1984 memorial service prompted a bizarre series of events that ultimately led to Olga Thrasher's becoming a government informant. She helped authorities arrest and convict several drug smugglers, and she was nicknamed "the black widow." She even helped federal authorities convict one of her attorneys, Carl McAfee of Norton, on money-laundering charges.
At the time of the memorial service, state and federal authorities were looking for Thrasher. They wanted to question him about an airplane he owned that had crashed a couple of weeks earlier into a Carroll County mountain. The crash killed one man and scattered 570 pounds of marijuana over Fancy Gap Mountain.
When the memorial service was held with plenty of mourners and no corpse, authorities figured Thrasher had faked his death and fled the country.
They then turned their attention to Olga Thrasher, hoping she would lead them to her husband. But she, too, had no idea what really happened. She suspected he had been killed by another drug pilot or by his suppliers, perhaps because they were angry about his loss of the 570 pounds of marijuana.
Federal and state authorities in Virginia later charged Olga Thrasher with numerous crimes, including money laundering and attempted murder for hire.
Most of the charges were dropped in May 1985 in a plea bargain with federal prosecutors in Roanoke. She was released on probation in return for working as a government witness and informant.
She even agreed to testify against her husband if he ever showed up.
Olga Thrasher and federal authorities in Florida may be convinced that Wallace Thrasher is dead, but Don Lincoln, the chief DEA agent in Roanoke, believes Thrasher is alive in the Caribbean.
Lincoln, who directed the Caballero investigation, said that if Thrasher had been in the crash described, "his ring would have been an ingot." But, he said, laboratory tests on the ring show no indication of exposure to extreme heat or fire.
"Someday I'll be undercover" somewhere in the Caribbean, walk into a bar and "be standing right next to him," Lincoln said.
"I'll always have my doubts. We're not going to close out the case."
by CNB