Marble Hill man detained for alleged trafficking

WEST PLAINS, Mo. -- Angelo Charles Vetrano, 33, Shirley, N.Y., and Joshua William Vawter, 37, Marble Hill, Mo., were arrested at 12:22 a.m. Friday at the West Plains Regional Airport at Pomona, Mo., and charged on Saturday with trafficking drugs.

They are in the Howell County Jail in West Plains, with bail for each set at $1.5 million.

On Thursday, Howell County Sheriff Mike Shannon said federal authorities are involved in the investigation, but no federal charges had been filed.

Howell County Court denied Vawter's petition for a bond reduction, and his case has been continued to Tuesday.

The marijuana found in the search is reported to have a street value of $1.5 million.

Information received from U.S. Customs Border Protections led local, state and federal agencies to wait with a search warrant when the single-engine Piper PA32 airplane landed to refuel. The flight had originated from California. Officials are not saying what the final destination was.

Howell County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Rizwan Ahad said in court papers the charges involve finding more than 200 individual packages of marijuana in the plane.

He wrote the two were "attempting to deliver to other individuals more than 30 kilograms but less than a hundred kilograms of a mixture or substance containing marijuana, a controlled substance."

In his report, Howell County Sheriff's Department deputy Lee Talmage said the 202 packages of vacuum-sealed, high-grade hydroponic marijuana in the 10 bags had an estimated street value at $1.5 million. There also were receipts found in the plane for the purchase of the 10 bags in California. The packages and marijuana weighed about one pound each for a total weight of 200 pounds.

The two had been investigated by federal authorities for about three years for alleged illegal trafficking of marijuana throughout the United States, Talmage wrote.

The U.S. Customs Border Protections notified the Howell County Sheriff's Department there was an airplane at the airport that might be transporting illegal narcotics. The sheriff's department's K-9 officer, Talmage, and his dog, Ice, with the help of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, West Plains Police Department, others in the sheriff's department, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and South Central Drug Task Force were involved in serving the search warrant.

Banner Press editor Linda Redeffer contributed to this report.