HELENA, Mont. – The Latest on the arrest of a fugitive wanted for drug trafficking 29 years ago (all times local):
12:25 p.m.
A former prosecutor says authorities nearly caught a drug-trafficking fugitive in Spain 28 years before he was arrested trying to walk across the U.S.-Canada border last month.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin Klotz says Spanish agents with an international warrant were a day late raiding an apartment where Jacob Moritz was staying in 1990.
Klotz said Tuesday that Moritz's trail went cold after that until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested him last month walking from Canada into Montana.
Moritz pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that include conspiracy to import heroin and marijuana. He is one of four defendants accused of smuggling more than 120 tons of drugs into the U.S. between 1971 and 1985.
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10:20 a.m.
A federal magistrate is allowing a fugitive who was arrested walking across a remote part of the U.S.-Canada border to live with his son in Florida while his drug trafficking case from 1989 is pending.
Jacob Moritz appeared in U.S. District Court in New York City on Monday after U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested him in Montana last month, 29 years after he was indicted.
Moritz is one of four defendants charged with smuggling at least 120 tons of marijuana and hashish into the U.S. He is now 71 or 72 years old.
Moritz pleaded not guilty and was released after posting a $100,000 bond.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cott ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring device while he stays with his son in Tampa.
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