The Tusker

Summary

Criminal – “The Tusker” (Oct 17, 2025)

Host: Phoebe Judge
Theme: A tale of fishermen, hashish, and the accidental intersection of small-town Maine with international drug smuggling in the 1970s and 1980s.

---

Episode Overview

In “The Tusker,” Criminal examines how thousands of pounds of hashish ended up on the ocean floor off the coast of Maine, soon to be pulled up by unsuspecting scallop fishermen. The story unfolds through the memories of Audrey Ryan, whose fisherman father stumbled into the center of this smuggling saga, and traces the origins to a smuggling ring called the Coronado Company, from California to the small harbors of Maine. The episode hits on themes of class divides, happenstance, organized crime, and the ways local communities can get swept up in wider criminal events.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Life on Mount Desert Island – The Fishermen and the Elite

• Audrey Ryan describes the sharp divide between “year round people and summer people” in Mount Desert Island, Maine, highlighting the presence of rich seasonal residents like the Rockefellers and Martha Stewart ([00:57]).
• Her family lived there year-round in humble circumstances: father a fisherman and handyman; house “falling apart,” sometimes without plumbing, always near the sea ([01:50]).

2. Audrey’s Father – Fisherman, Carpenter… and Something More

• Audrey’s father fished for scallops, sometimes gone for days or a week at a time ([02:13], [02:20]).
• By age 19, Audrey learns indirectly that her father was dealing marijuana, connecting the dots after a customer mentions circumstances matching her family ([02:59]–[03:34]).

Quote:

“The light bulb went off, and I was like, oh my God, that’s my dad.”
— Audrey Ryan ([03:34])

3. The Surprise Catch – Hashish in the Nets

• In the early 1980s, rumors spread among fishermen that “there was hash at the bottom of the ocean” ([03:39]).
• In 1983, Audrey’s father brings up bricks of hash (“looked like the sole of a shoe, but thicker”), totaling about 20 lbs. The smell was overwhelming and distinctive ([04:43], [05:17]).
• Police with drug-sniffing dogs await the boat. Audrey’s father quickly dumps the hash overboard to avoid detection ([05:36]).

Quote:

“It just smelled really potent and skunky and stinky. Everyone said you could smell it the minute it came on board.”
— Audrey Ryan ([04:43])

4. An Open Secret – The Fishermen and the “Ocean Bonus”

• Many local fishermen reported pulling up hash bricks—sometimes full canisters (~$100,000 value each) ([06:56]).
• Hash was so abundant that it lost value locally, more valuable if smuggled out of state, with fishermen making $300–$1,000 per pound depending on destination ([07:28]).

Quote:

“A canister was worth a lot of money…Maybe $100,000 or more. So if they got a canister, it was a huge score.”
— Audrey Ryan ([06:56])

“There was a lot more money to be made out of state.”
— Audrey Ryan ([07:28])

• Fishermen spent their windfall on new trucks, boats, or (in at least one rumor) a house in Bar Harbor, now worth millions ([08:11]).

5. Where Did the Hash Come From? The Coronado Company

• The name “Tuska” or “Tusker” surfaces repeatedly—research eventually reveals the “Tusker” was a ship owned by the Coronado Company ([08:54], [09:53]).
• The Coronado Company started in California, with leader Lance Weber and former high school friends (many from the swim team) swimming marijuana across the border from Mexico in waterproof trash bags ([13:20], [13:55]).

Quote:

“If you look at a map, like it’s not that far from the Mexican border up to Coronado, so they literally swim back with the drugs.”
— Audrey Ryan ([13:29])

• Older group member and Spanish teacher/coach Lou Velar gets involved; over time, the operation expands with boats, amphibious vehicles, and eventually to international sources (Thailand, Pakistan) for hashish ([15:45]–[16:20]).

6. The Expansion to Maine and the Tusker’s Fateful Run

• After indictments on the West Coast, the Coronado Company moves some operations to remote Cutler, Maine—selected for its privacy and the Black Ledges landmark ([19:27], [19:51]).
• In 1978, they buy the 137-foot tug “Tusker” and head to Pakistan, planning to offload six tons of hash in Cutler ([21:51]).
• The house and activity are noticed by a neighbor, and the authorities put the location under surveillance ([22:17], [25:06]).
• When the Tusker arrives ahead of communications, town residents spot it—law enforcement converges ([24:55], [25:06]).

Quote:

“Why is there a 137-foot tugboat in the middle of nowhere, you know, when it should be in the Bering Sea, you know? And so they called the cops.”
— Audrey Ryan ([24:55])

• The Coast Guard initially doesn’t realize what they’re looking for, expecting marijuana bales, not metal canisters. The Tusker’s crew throws 300 canisters of hash overboard while towed to port ([26:22]).

7. The Arrests and Aftermath

• Lee Strimple and Ron Weber, Coronado members, try to escape but are found and arrested ([27:14]–[28:53]).
• For a moment, the smugglers think they're in the clear because evidence is on the ocean floor ([29:01]–[29:15]).

Quote:

“The boys had managed to chuck that stuff all off the boat.”
— Lee Strimple ([29:21])

• However, canisters eventually wash ashore, divers recover hundreds of pounds, but much remains underwater ([29:31]).
• Fishermen reap the “bonus” for years, finding hash in the best scallop beds ([30:31]).

Quote:

“It happened to be dropped on what my dad described as the best scallop beds he'd ever seen...it was just pure coincidence and a total bonanza for the fishing community.”
— Audrey Ryan ([30:31])

• Sentences: Ron Weber gets two years, Lee Strimple two years and probation; by 1984, 57 Coronado Company members were convicted in three states, including the ringleader Lou Velar, who got a deal for his cooperation ([31:32]–[32:11]).

---

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “The light bulb went off, and I was like, oh my God, that’s my dad.”
  – Audrey Ryan ([03:34])

• “It just smelled really potent and skunky and stinky… it didn’t smell like your normal seafood.”
  – Audrey Ryan ([04:43])

• “A canister was worth a lot of money, maybe $100,000 or more. So if they got a canister, it was a huge score.”
  – Audrey Ryan ([06:56])

• “Why is there a 137-foot tugboat in the middle of nowhere…?”
  – Audrey Ryan ([24:55])

• “The boys had managed to chuck that stuff all off the boat.”
  – Lee Strimple ([29:21])

• “It happened to be dropped on what my dad described as the best scallop beds he'd ever seen… it was just pure coincidence and a total bonanza for the fishing community.”
  – Audrey Ryan ([30:31])

---

Noteworthy Timestamps

• 00:57: Audrey describes class divides and famous residents of Mount Desert Island.
• 03:34: Audrey realizes her own father was dealing drugs.
• 04:43: Discovery of hash in scallop nets.
• 06:56: How much hash could be worth; canisters vs. loose bricks.
• 13:29: The Coronado Company swam hash across the US/Mexico border.
• 15:45: The Spanish teacher becomes the ringleader of a major cartel.
• 19:27: Lee Strimple joins the story, operations on the East Coast.
• 21:51-22:17: The Tusker's arrival in Maine and suspicions arise.
• 24:55: The Tusker draws attention in Cutler.
• 26:22: Crew throws hash canisters off the ship while under Coast Guard escort.
• 29:21: The moment smugglers realize the evidence is gone—“they had managed to chuck that stuff all off the boat.”
• 30:31: Fishermen finding both legendary scallop beds and hashish—a local bonanza.

---

Tone and Language

The episode is marked by Phoebe Judge’s calm, investigative style, blending curiosity and empathy, while Audrey Ryan’s voice is both factual and laced with nostalgia and irony—conveying a sense of wonder at the bizarre intersection of small-town lives and international crime. Direct quotes and commentary are casual, sometimes peppered with wry humor as locals reminisce about their unexpected windfall.

---

Summary

This episode of Criminal uses the accidental bounty of hashish in Maine’s coastal waters as a lens into a forgotten chapter of American smuggling history, illuminating the ripple effects international crime can have on the most unlikely communities. Through interviews, archival discoveries, and candid storytelling, “The Tusker” offers a rich narrative of luck, risk, and the blurred lines between everyday survival and the world of organized crime.

Transcript

[Phoebe Judge]

Support for Criminal comes from Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one platform designed to help you make a great website. Whether you're just starting out or trying to grow your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to choose a URL, show off what you're selling, reach more customers, get paid, and do it all while looking professional. Everything in one place. Check out squarespace.com criminal for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code criminal to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[Sponsor Voice - Thumbtack]

Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start. Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is. With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro, you just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download today.

[Audrey Ryan]

You know there's a big dichotomy in Mount Desert island between year round people and summer people. The Rockefellers owned, I think most of the island at some point in time. They're still there. I've met several of them. And then there's the Astors, J.P. morgan's descendants, and Martha Stewart, who I've seen several times.

[Phoebe Judge]

This is Audrey Ryan. She grew up on Mount Desert island in Maine. It's home to Acadia National Park. She says she and her family were year round people for a while. Her parents lived in a cottage with no heating, just a wood stove. It was built to be a summer house. Her father sold his car to move them into another house. It didn't have indoor plumbing at first. Her father installed it himself.

[Audrey Ryan]

The house I remember was like kind of falling apart and he was trying to like fix it up as he went. Although it was very beautiful, you could like we weren't on the ocean but you could smell it and you could kind of see it through the trees. We were always really close to the ocean. But really I think most of the ocean access in Mount Desert island is. It's basically for the people that can afford it.

[Phoebe Judge]

Audrey's father worked as a fisherman. He fished for scallops on a boat called Joshua's Delight.

[Audrey Ryan]

That kind of fishing, you know, you go out for days. Sometimes you're not, it's not just like a 9 to 5. Sometimes you're gone for like a couple days. Sometimes he was gone for a week. If like they went further away, you know, and they sleep on the boat.

[Phoebe Judge]

Audrey remembers that once he brought home giant snails he'd caught. And another time, a lobster that was too big to sell. In the off season, her father worked a second job as a carpenter. And then When Audrea was 19, she learned about her father's third job. She was working as a waitress. Her parents were getting divorced, and she was living with her boyfriend.

[Audrey Ryan]

I started dating this prep cook, and he was basically a pot dealer. And some customer came in and was, like, trying to buy, I don't know, a dime bag or some sort of weed from him. And she was telling this story about, oh, well, my regular dealer, you know, he's unavailable right now.

[Phoebe Judge]

Audrey overheard the customer mention that her dealer was getting a divorce. And then she heard her mention he was arguing with his wife about what to do with their dog. It sounded exactly like a fight her mother and father had just had.

[Audrey Ryan]

The light bulb went off, and I was like, oh, my God, that's my dad.

[Phoebe Judge]

Audrey says her father never really wanted to talk about dealing drugs. But several years later, he told her about the day he found about 20 pounds of hash in his scallop net. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal. Audrey Ryan's father, Frank Ryan, told her that for years, the there were rumors going around that there was hash at the bottom of the ocean. Hash is a concentrated kind of marijuana. It's usually dried to make a kind of resin. One day in 1983, he was out fishing for scallops. Using a drag net.

[Audrey Ryan]

They basically drag. They dredge pretty much the ocean floor. Cause scallop beds lay on the ocean floor.

[Phoebe Judge]

When they brought the net up, they found scallops and something else. There were chunks of something brown and sticky tangled in the net.

[Audrey Ryan]

My dad said it just smelled really potent and skunky and stinky. Everyone said you could smell it the minute it came on board. So that's how they knew they had it. It didn't smell like your normal seafood. The hash was like bricks. It was literally almost as hard as a brick. And so they said it looked like the sole of a shoe, but thicker. But it was basically a brick of hash. Probably, I don't know, maybe 10 inches long and 4 inches wide. But the edges had been rounded off, maybe from the ocean floor, rubbing against things.

[Phoebe Judge]

They found a few of them. Audrey's father thought they might have about 20 pounds total. He and the crew decided to bring it back and see if they could sell it. But there were narcotics officers waiting on the dogs. They were planning to search all the scallop boats coming in that night.

[Audrey Ryan]

They had a drug sniffing dog and my dad's boat came in first. So once they saw the dog and the police coming, they kind of. My dad freaked out and quickly put the hash in a. Basically in a scallop bag and then popped a hole in the bag and like they threw it overboard. It sunk right there.

[Phoebe Judge]

When police boarded the boat, they opened up any bins they could find. Next, they searched below deck in the crew's quarters.

[Audrey Ryan]

When the doc came on board and started sniffing, I mean, he smelled something for sure, but they didn't find any. They didn't find enough or any evidence to bust them.

[Phoebe Judge]

The police let them go. Audrey says that after her father told her about that night, she had a lot of questions.

[Audrey Ryan]

I was like, why are there drugs in the bottom of the ocean? It just seemed like a really bizarre thing to stumble upon.

[Phoebe Judge]

She started asking her father's friends and other fishermen from the island whether they knew anything. Not everyone wanted to talk to her about it, but about two dozen people told her they'd also found hash in the ocean. Sometimes they found the bricks, and sometimes they would find it stuffed in a metal canister.

[Audrey Ryan]

A canister was worth a lot of money, you know, maybe $100,000 or more. So if they got a canister, it was a huge score. But a lot of it was these pieces. And so they would just put it in a bucket on board. A lot of the scallopers had a bucket just for the hash. And then they'd bring it home, they'd clean it up. Sometimes they'd freeze it or dry it, and then they'd smoke it or sell it.

[Phoebe Judge]

And for the men who were selling it, were they making a lot of money? Where were they selling it?

[Audrey Ryan]

I think that it didn't have as much value in the island just because there was so much of it. But they get $400 a pound. So if you have 50 pounds, that's a lot of money. That's $20,000. But I think there was a lot more money to be made out of state. I think once they cleaned it up, if they could get it out of state, they could make a lot of money. So I heard numbers of 300 to $1,000 a pound that the fishermen were getting for it, depending on where they were selling it.

[Phoebe Judge]

There was so much of it that people in the area knew that if they wanted to buy hash, they should ask a fisherman. Audrey says most of the fishermen didn't get rich. They told her that it was more like a bonus.

[Audrey Ryan]

You know, there was a lot of rumors about what people had done with the money. I think there were definitely some new trucks, maybe some new boats. But the one that I kept hearing was about this guy who had bought a house with the money in Bar Harbor. And at the time, you know, a house in Bar harbor wasn't that much money. I think he bought it for like $8,000 of hash money. But now that house is worth probably a couple million because it's in downtown Bar Harbor. He wouldn't speak with me. He was one of the fishermen who definitely iced me out because I. He knew what I was gonna ask him. But that rumor was confirmed by several people.

[Phoebe Judge]

And what did the fishermen know about where this had come from?

[Audrey Ryan]

They just knew that it had come on a boat and drug smugglers had thrown it overboard. That's pretty much what they knew. They knew the name of the boat. A lot of them did. They would say, oh, it came on the Tusca. But I kept saying, how do you spell it? And they'd be like, I don't know. T U S C A T U S K A. And I kept googling and, you know, this was also not super. Recently. I started researching this like over 10 years ago. So I'm, like, looking for something online and I couldn't find anything. And I started going to the library and, you know, getting in touch with the local paper. There was nothing. And I was like, this doesn't make any sense. And then I got in touch with, like, a historian archivist at the Bangor Daily News, and she. Boom, sends me back all these articles with the Tusker and it's, er, it's T U S K E R.

[Phoebe Judge]

We'll be right back to listen without ads. Join Criminal plus Thanks to Squarespace for their support. Squarespace is the all in one platform designed to help you make a great website. Whether you're just starting out or trying to grow your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to choose a URL, show off what you're selling, reach more customers, get paid, and do it all while looking professional. Everything in one place, no matter what you're working on. Whether it's a podcast, a special event, photography services, or a consultation business, you can customize your website to reach the right people. If you're creating video content like online courses, tutorials, or workshops, Squarespace has built in ways to support that. With Squarespace, you can upload your videos into an organized, paywalled library, and they make it easy to collect payment with thoughtfully designed invoices and online payments. Plus, they have tools that make it convenient for people to keep in touch with you, tools that help you send emails to potential customers or that let your customers schedule their own appointments. Check out squarespace.com criminal for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code CRIMINAL to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Support for Criminal comes from Ritual. As it gets colder, your routine is probably changing, and you might be trying to figure out what kinds of habits you need to keep you healthy. But they don't need to be complicated or time consuming. They can be as simple as taking a daily multivitamin. I take rituals essential for women 18 every day. I like the peppermint smell of the bottle and that it's so easy to take. It's two capsules per day that contain nine key nutrients, including vitamin D and omega 3. They're made to release the nutrients slowly, letting your body absorb what it needs when it needs it. Ritual is also Clean Label Project Certified, which means they're transparent about their ingredients so you can be sure that what you see on the bottle is exactly what's inside. Instead of striving for perfect health, aim for supporting foundational health. Get 25% off your first month [e-mail] criminal start ritual or add essential for a 18 to your subscription today. That's ritual.com criminal for 25% off. Audrey Ryan learned that Petusker was a boat owned by something called the Coronado Company. It was started by a man named Lance Weber. He tinkered with cars and liked to smoke pot. He joined the Navy after graduating high school, but once his service was up, he came back home to Coronado, California, just a few miles outside San Diego and less than 20 miles from the border to Mexico. And one summer, Lance Webber got an idea. He would go to Mexico and buy his own marijuana for cheaper. He'd keep some for himself and sell the rest. And instead of driving back, he would swim. On his first trip, he brought back 25 pounds of marijuana. Then Lance asked some friends to swim with him and bring back more pot.

[Audrey Ryan]

He was swimming it up the coast a couple miles in trash bags or whatever and selling it to their buddies.

[Phoebe Judge]

What do you mean swimming it up?

[Audrey Ryan]

If you look at a map like it's not that far from the Mexican border up to Coronado, so they literally swim back with the drugs.

[Phoebe Judge]

So when they were swimming with it, they attach it to themselves. Waterproof. Like in a garbage bag?

[Audrey Ryan]

Pretty much.

[Phoebe Judge]

Lance and the friends he recruited had gone to the same high school. Some of them had been on the swim team.

[Audrey Ryan]

They were like the brotherhood. They were friends. And they got into the pot business. It was definitely more of a peace and love hippie kind of thing. And they were good at it. And I think they were smart and they could have done a lot of different things with their lives, but they decided to get into the pot business and they thrived.

[Phoebe Judge]

They made about 5,000 doll, about 45,000 today on every trip. They would go out at night in waters where jellyfish and sharks were often seen. The waves were huge. Then they got the idea to use a rubber inflatable boat like the kind used by the Navy and Marines. They could carry around 100 pounds of marijuana at a time. Lance Weber and the Coronado company were smuggling marijuana in the 1970s at a time when both the United States and Mexico began making it harder to bring marijuana across the border. President Nixon had decided to start the war on drugs after learning from a congressional report that half the troops that served in Vietnam used marijuana. He called drugs public enemy number one. The State Department helped the Mexican government fly planes to look for marijuana crops and spray them with herbicide. It didn't stop growers. They would often harvest the plants anyway. The Coronado Company asked their old high school Spanish teacher to translate negotiations with their suppliers in Mexico. His name was Lou Velar. He also used to coach the swim team. They paid him $50 on his first job, then $10,000 on the second job.

[Audrey Ryan]

And that Spanish teacher ended up being the ringleader of the whole cartel and building it into this pretty massive outfit.

[Phoebe Judge]

They kept using inflatable boats and eventually they bought a dock, an amphibious vehicle that the US Military used to carry troops on land and water. They started buying marijuana from Thailand. It was supposed to be stronger than what they could get in Mexico and they could sell it for more money. One time they used the duck to smuggle in a delivery of marijuana from Thailand that was worth $8 million.

[Audrey Ryan]

And they weren't just in the San Diego area. They were also in Malibu. And they were up. They were basically up and down the coast for years until they got indicted in 1973.

[Phoebe Judge]

When the DEA first opened an office in San Diego, agents got a tip that there was a drug smuggling operation in Coronado. Soon a police officer told them that a former high school teacher was in charge. Then they heard about a boat being sighted off the coast of Coronado in the middle of the night. The DEA agent staked out the Beach. But they didn't find anyone. And then in 1974, the Coronado Company kicked a man named Paul Acree out of the operation. His friends suspected he'd gotten addicted to heroin and cocaine and couldn't be trusted anymore. Paul Acree decided to talk to the dea. He told them how much marijuana the Coronado Company was bringing in and how they were conducting their operations. Based on Paul Acree's information, the DEA started to build a case against the Coronado Company. In late 1977, a grand jury indicted 26 members of the Coronado Company for conspiracy to commit drug trafficking. But the DEA couldn't arrest them. They didn't know where any of them actually were. The company's lawyer told Lou Velar that he should let some of the indicted turn themselves in and that higher ups like Lou should stay on the run. And they stayed in business. A DEA agent later said, quote, they operated almost like a military unit. They used answering services to leave each other coded messages. They only used payphones. Everyone kept a bag of quarters with them. They were running multiple operations on the west coast in San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. And when the company heard there was demand on the east coast, they started a new operation in Maine. In 2015, Audrey got a phone number for someone who had worked for the Coronado Company.

[Audrey Ryan]

So it took me a few years, but I finally tracked one down and he told me what had really happened.

[Phoebe Judge]

Hey, Audrey, how you doing?

[Lee Strimple]

I'm doing okay.

[Audrey Ryan]

So I just like have like 10 or 20 questions for you. It might be easier to just fire questions at you.

[Lee Strimple]

Yeah.

[Phoebe Judge]

This is from an interview Audrey recorded with a man named Lee Strimple. When she spoke to him, he was in Texas working as a ranch manager. Lee told Audrey he started working for the Coronado Company in 1973.

[Audrey Ryan]

Lee Strimple was the operations manager of a lot of their deals. And when they got on the East Coast, Lee was huge in that role. And he lived in Maine for like a year or two.

[Phoebe Judge]

Lee Strimple told Audrey that the Coronado Company bought a house in a town called Cutler, about 85 miles north of Mount Desert Island.

[Audrey Ryan]

I had never heard of Cutler before this. It's a kind of. It's not much of a town. I mean, there is definitely a harbor of sorts and there's some fishermen, but I doubt there's a thousand people that live there. It's remote. One of the reasons they chose it beside it being remote is it's kind of in a little cove, like a U shaped cove. So it has some privacy. But in front of it are. They call it the Black Ledges. And it's just some rocks sticking out of the ocean, but it's like a landmark. So if you were in a boat, you could find it, it would be enough of a landmark because the coast is, you know, the main coast is 3,500 miles. So it'll be very easy, especially with navigation stuff back then, you know, in the late 70s to get lost. The thing about the house that's weird though, is that it's up high, like there's the beach and the house, there's like maybe 50ft. And they had to basically build ramps to go from the beach up to the house. That part is a little mysterious to me, why they chose it, because it is a lot of work. But I actually think the Coronado Company liked the challenge of it.

[Phoebe Judge]

Audrey asked Lee Strimple how the Coronado Company smuggled drugs to Cutler. He told her, the first time they did it, they bought a ship and, and hired a crew to pick them up from Thailand. It took over a month for the ship to make it back to Maine. Once it arrived, Lee and a small crew took a custom made inflatable raft out to meet the boat in the water. They brought the drugs back to shore, and then they used logging equipment to bring the load up the cliffs to the house in Cutler. Lee Strimple was in charge of the operation, but when he had to be away, he asked a man named Ron Weber to stay there. Here's Lee, Ron Weber.

[Lee Strimple]

He and his wife were my lifelong friends and they were just hired on as caretakers of the house.

[Phoebe Judge]

The company smuggled drugs into Maine twice in 1977, and then in 1978, they bought the Tusker for a third operation. They planned to pick up 6 tons of hash from Pakistan and drop it in Cutler that December. But before the boat was supposed to arrive, Ron Weber and his wife told Lee that they were worried about a car they'd seen around.

[Audrey Ryan]

They kept seeing a Chevy Blazer, like a red Chevy Blazer. And Lee saw that same car at what he called the cop shop, which is the police station.

[Lee Strimple]

And that, you know, that's how we found that we were under surveillance and they were watching the house.

[Phoebe Judge]

We'll be right back.

[Sponsor Voice - T-Mobile / Liberty Mutual]

Morning, Zoe.

[Audrey Ryan]

Jeff Bridges. Why are you still living above our garage?

[Sponsor Voice - T-Mobile / Liberty Mutual]

I want to be in a T Mobile commercial like you teach me Sul.

[Audrey Ryan]

Dana. I couldn't possibly AT T Mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.

[Sponsor Voice - T-Mobile / Liberty Mutual]

Impressive. Let me try. AT T Mobile you can save up to 20% versus the other big guys. You heard them. T Mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible trade in in any condition. Check the math to see how much you could save versus the other big guys@t mobile.com sweet.

[Sponsor Voice - WhatsApp]

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone.

[Phoebe Judge]

Learn [e-mail] when Lee Strimple learned about the Chevy Blazer that seemed to be watching them, he tried to warn the crew of the Tusker they were due back soon from Pakistan with the hash. But no one had had any radio contact with the crew in weeks. Others in the Coronado company tried to find the boat before it got to Maine. They hired a charter plane to see if they could spot it from the air, but they couldn't find it. On December 12, just before it was due to arrive, Lee Strimple and Ron Weber decided to go out themselves to meet the Tusker before it got close to the coast. They pushed off from shore about 10 miles south of Cutler. They're trying to make sure they weren't followed. They brought a radio with them. They thought they could warn the crew to stay away, but once they got into the water, they saw something large in the distance. They were too late. The Tusker had already arrived. People in town had seen it, and they were wondering what it was doing there.

[Audrey Ryan]

Why is there a 137foot tugboat in the middle of nowhere, you know, when it should be in the Bering Sea, you know? And so they called the cops.

[Phoebe Judge]

Police had suspected there was a drug smuggling operation in the area. First, they'd gotten a tip about the house in Cutler. A neighbor said he'd noticed a lot of people he didn't recognize. When police checked on who owned the house, they learned the title belonged to a man in Boston. But the address was a PO box and the phone number went to an answering service. The police were part of a task force looking for drug smugglers called Operation Atlantis. They were working with the dea, Coast Guard, state police, and irs. They all shared information with each other. They had created A list of signs of drug smuggling. They asked real estate agents to look for out of towners buying land off season, especially if it was somewhere a bigger boat could dock. Someone building a new pier could also be a sign of smuggling. People buying a portable conveyor belt was another sign. That night, around 9pm, someone called the Coast Guard to tell them about the Tusker. When Coast Guard officers boarded the boat and performed a search, they believed they were looking for marijuana.

[Audrey Ryan]

They were looking, you know, they knew what marijuana bales look like, which look a lot different than metal canisters of hash. So they searched the boat and they didn't find anything because they didn't know what they were looking for. But anyway, the Coast Guard looked around and they said, well, there's no drugs. We don't see anything. So they actually wrote them up for the only thing they could to keep them, which is that they had no lights at night because it was like 10 o' clock at night. So they said, no, we're going to bring you in for that. The Coast Guard towed them in to the station, and while they did that, they weren't able to see. And a whole side of the Tusker and it was a big boat. And in that, you know, five minutes, 10 minutes, the crew threw 300 canisters of hash overboard and it plummeted to the ocean floor.

[Phoebe Judge]

And where was Lee's Dremel in all of this?

[Audrey Ryan]

He was freaked out. He was on a Zodiac, which is those little inflatable boats basically, with an outboard motor. So they booked it and they took the Zodiac back towards the Cutler house. But then they heard all the authorities there that were like, there they are. We got them. We got them. So once they realized that they were gonna get busted, they made a run for it.

[Phoebe Judge]

Lee Strimple and Ron Webber went east until they found a cove. They beached the boat and then they started running up the beach into the woods.

[Audrey Ryan]

And Lee is a smart guy. He's also really athletic and strong. And I think if he had been on his own, I actually think that he probably would have made it. I think he probably would have been able to get far enough away and pretend to be a civilian that he might have managed to not get busted. But he was with this other guy, and the other guy was a smoker and he had night blindness. So as soon as they were in the woods trying to make a run for it, this partner of his was basically like, I can't do this. It's also freezing cold. It's December, it was really chilly. And so his partner basically quit on him and said, I can't do this until there's daylight. And I think Lee was completely shattered. Cause I think he knew that the end was coming. The guy he was with, Ron Webber, knew all their secrets. And it was an old friend of his. They'd known each other for, like, 15 years. So he didn't want to just ditch his friend in the cold woods. So we stayed there with him. And, you know, and then the cops busted them at, like, 3 in the morning. They found him in the woods.

[Phoebe Judge]

DEA agents brought Lee Strimple and Ron Weber to a local jail where the crew of the Tusker was also being held.

[Audrey Ryan]

And he overheard the crew, the captain, saying, I don't know why they brought us in here. So he actually knew that that comment was directed to him and that basically they had scuttled the evidence.

[Phoebe Judge]

Here's Lee.

[Lee Strimple]

He was talking to me at the other end of the building.

[Sponsor Voice - T-Mobile / Liberty Mutual]

I'm going, what?

[Lee Strimple]

The boys had managed to chuck that stuff all off the boat.

[Audrey Ryan]

And so he had a moment of relief of, like, well, they have us here in jail, but they really don't have any evidence against us.

[Phoebe Judge]

But then canisters started washing up on shore. Over the next week, divers brought up over £600 of the hash. There were still hundreds of pounds of hash at the bottom of the ocean that the police hadn't found. Lee said that at one point he thought the Coronado Company might be able to find the drugs and sell them. But eventually he realized that wouldn't be possible.

[Audrey Ryan]

But he claims. And he could just be humoring me, but he claims that he thought of the scallop fisherman and that he actually thought, well, the locals will have a heyday with this. You know, he just dropped $60 million worth of drugs on the, you know, the ocean floor.

[Phoebe Judge]

So all of that hash that had been dropped in Cutler, which is kind of a distance from where your father was, I mean, what, it was just kind of swept with tides along the bottom? Or were people fishing up there and then they bring it back into the harbor?

[Audrey Ryan]

I had the same question. It turns out scallop fishermen travel far distances. Like, they go to the scallop beds. And this is also, like, a huge coincidence because those drugs could have been dropped anywhere, but they happened to be dropped on what my dad described as the best scallop beds he'd ever seen. So that was not just a heyday because they were making money off of hash. It was also a heyday because they were dragging up like a thousand pounds of scallops a day. And at the time, scallops were worth $7 a pound. So they were making $7,000 in a day. This is in, like, early 80s off of scallops. And also have a cash bonus of a bunch of hash. So it was just pure coincidence and a total bonanza for the fishing community. And my dad said that the second year that he started finding it in his nets, there were like 80 boats all of a sudden.

[Phoebe Judge]

Ron Weber was sentenced to two years in prison for drug smuggling. Lee Strimple was convicted of conspiracy to import $1.5 million worth of hash into Maine. He served two years in prison and five years on probation. Where is Lee now?

[Audrey Ryan]

So Lee's moved around a bit. Lee, because he's a felon, he hasn't really been able to, like, get ahead much. When I met him, he was living in Texas, in Harper, Texas, and he was a manager of a ranch. And, you know, he's really good at that kind of thing because he has all this operational experience.

[Phoebe Judge]

Lee told Audrey that now that marijuana is legal, he's thought about applying for a pardon. By 1984, six years after the Tusker dumped its cargo, 57 people associated with the Coronado company had been convicted. In Maine, California and Washington state, 27 people were also indicted by the federal government for drug trafficking. Lou Velar, the man in charge of the Coronado company, made a deal with the U.S. attorney's office in exchange for information about who was in the company and who they worked with. Lou received a sentence of time served and was released as part of his deal. He also had to go on the radio to warn people against getting into drugs. For years after the Tusker people went looking for the hash, they would use dragnets or go diving for it. One police chief said, that place is busier than the mall at Christmas time. Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Roberson, Jackie Zagiko, Lily Clark, Lena Sillison and Megan Kinane. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see [e-mail] and you can sign up for our [e-mail] Newsletter. We hope you'll consider supporting our work by joining our membership program, Criminal. Plus, you can listen to Criminal, this is Love and Phoebe reads a Mystery without any ads. Plus, you'll get bonus episodes. These are special episodes with me and Criminal co creator Lauren Spohr talking about everything from how we make our episodes to the crime stories that caught our attention that week to things we've been enjoying lately. To learn more, go to thisiscriminal.com plus we're on Facebook at thisiscriminal and Instagram and TikTok at Criminal Underscore Podcast. We're also on [e-mail] criminalpodcast. Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great [e-mail] I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Support for Criminal comes from Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to do holiday shopping your way. Whether you're looking for the right gift or the right outfit, Saks is where you can find everything from a Jimmy Choo bag for a sister who's hard to shop for to a Prada jacket for yourself to dress up for holiday dinner. If you don't know where to start, Saks.com will filter just for items that match your personal style so you can save time shopping and spend more time just enjoying the holidays. Make shopping fun and easy this season and find gifts that suit your holiday style at Saks Fifth Avenue.

[Sponsor Voice - T-Mobile / Liberty Mutual]

And Doug Here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[Phoebe Judge]

Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us?

[Audrey Ryan]

Us?

[Sponsor Voice - T-Mobile / Liberty Mutual]

Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Very underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts.