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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991                   TAG: 9102080788
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MIAMI                                LENGTH: Short

COAST GUARDSMEN FACE DRUG CHARGES

All four, one now stationed in Virginia, were indicted here Thursday on two counts each of conspiring to possess and possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. The guardsmen allegedly hid four kilograms of cocaine confiscated in August 1986 in waters just south of Miami, said Coast Guard Capt. Paul Prokop.

They were identified as James B. Kaicher, 32, now stationed in the Marine Safety Office in Long Beach, Calif.; Jeffrey L. Fredrickson, 34, of the Fifth District Headquarters at Portsmouth, Va.; Donald Franklin, 34, of the Marine Safety Office in Tampa and Mark D. Degroot, 36, serving aboard the cutter Citrus in Coos Bay, Ore.

According to Thursday's indictment, a fisherman on August 6, 1986, reported finding a duffel bag full of cocaine off Boca Chita Key at the northern end of the island chain just off Miami.

The four were the full crew of a 19-foot launch sent out to investigate, said Lehtinen.

"There was so much cocaine floating in the water that the 19-foot boat had to call for the assistance of a 41-foot Coast Guard boat," Lehtinen said.

"As the 19-foot boat was heading back, they conspired and agreed to steal some of that cocaine, to hide it in the boat," he said. And before returning to base, the four allegedly stashed the cocaine along a mangrove-lined stretch of coastline just south of Miami, investigators said.