[2 items] Last of 'Brotherhood' defendants pleads guilty
http://www.ocregister.com/news/orange-220489-today-smith.html By LARRY WELBORN November 20, 2009 SANTA ANA - The last defendant in a decades-old drug conspiracy indictment out of Laguna Beach pleaded guilty today to transportation of hashish and was sentenced to 75 days in jail. Brenice Lee Smith, now 64, was one of the original defendants charged in a 1972 Orange County Grand Jury indictment that targeted the Laguna Beach-based drug cult "the Brotherhood of Eternal Love." He left Orange County in the 1970s before he could be prosecuted and ended up in Tibet, where he spent 11 years living in a monastery, according to defense attorney Gerardo S. Gutierrez. Smith later married and raised a daughter. He returned to the United States earlier this year and was detained by federal security agents on his outstanding warrant. He admitted to Judge William R. Froebeg today to conspiring with others to import hashish from Afghanistan to Orange County from 1966 to 1972. Deputy District Attorney James Hicks today said an investigation showed that while Smith was involved in the conspiracy, he was not among the major players. -------- Day 18: Mixing Hare Krishna ex-devotees with relocated Mafioso leads to murder http://50cases.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/19/day-18-mixing-hare-krishna-ex-devotees-with-relocated-mafioso-leads-to-murder/481/ November 19th, 2009 1977: You can't make this stuff up. Ex-communicated followers of the Hare Krishna religious sect involved in a growing, lucrative drug-smuggling enterprise specializing in "China White" heroin hired three thugs who were federally relocated witnesses who ratted out the Mafia to protect them. It all lead to murder when the mobsters "whacked" a cocaine dealer who had kidnapped the kingpin of the drug smugglers. Alexander Kulik, one of the founders of Laguna Beach drug cult The Brotherhood of Eternal Love was the central figure in this bizarre saga. When he was kidnapped for ransom in 1977, it led to the murder of Fountain Valley drug dealer and kidnapper Stephen John Bovan, who was gunned down outside the El Ranchito restaurant in Newport Beach on Oct. 22, 1977. Three men with ties to the Mafia were convicted of second-degree murder in 1978 for their roles in the gangland-style shooting. Kulik was arrested on the day Bovan was killed when a deputy sheriff spotted him sleeping in a rare and expensive Stutz Blackhawk automobile in Mission Viejo. He had a pound of "China White" in three mayonnaise jars in the back seat. Kulik served the heroin and conspiracy sentences concurrently. The three so-called hit men served their prison sentences and have been paroled. . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
