
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990                   TAG: 9005230557
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

DRUG PROBE TARGETS COAST GUARDSMEN

A Coast Guardsman assigned to a ship near President Bush's summer retreat in Maine is among 10 current or former servicemen targeted in a federal drug-smuggling investigation, according to Coast Guard officials.

Commandant Paul Yost told a news conference Tuesday that one of the servicemen was relieved of duties Friday when Yost learned that a two-year-old Justice Department investigation was still active.

Yost said at a news conference that those being investigated included four current and six former guardsmen.

Yost did not specify which active-duty guardsman had been relieved of duty. He said he would discuss with the U.S. attorney's office how to handle the three other active servicemen.

The admiral declined to identify any of those involved in the investigation or to give details of possible crimes committed. Yost said he did not learn of the inquiry until after NBC News interviewed him on Friday. The network reported that indictments were pending.

The serviceman on the ship off Maine was not involved in the president's security detail, Yost said.

"He was assigned to a vessel that could've been used as a backup to that security detail from time to time," he said. "The vessel had not been so used that I know of, but it could've been."

Coast Guard spokesman Jack O'Dell said the case stems from the conviction of four guardsmen in 1988 for selling drugs and passing information to smugglers.

Investigators have been interviewing those convicted, O'Dell said.

All of those involved in the continuing inquiry were stationed in Islamorada, Fla., at the time of the earlier charges, O'Dell said.

The commandant said he was telling the truth when he told NBC he was not aware of any inquiry or any pending indictments against members of the Coast Guard.

Since then, he said, he learned of "Operation Tempest," an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

"I am disappointed that any Coast Guard personnel are involved," Yost said. "We will ensure they are prosecuted and punished."

He said nearly all of the 38,000 men and women in the service, which is part of the Transportation Department, are serving honorably.

by CNB