PORT TOWNSEND — The man who bought the Western Wind at an auction says he’s not a fisherman and wouldn’t know the first thing about starting the boat’s engines.
So why did Richard Malinski of Los Angeles buy the seized fishing trawler?
“I bought the vessel at a very low price,” he said, noting he could turn around and sell it for more than the $35,000 he paid for it.
Or Malinski, a fresh fish importer, might send it out with a crew to catch tuna.
“If I were a fisherman, it would be a fantastic deal,” he said.
Malinski knew nothing about how U.S. Coast Guard boarding crews found more than 2 tons of cocaine in a secret hold aboard the Western Wind in February 2001 near the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
He first learned of the vessel’s history in a telephone interview Saturday with the Peninsula Daily News.
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The rest of the story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE, above, to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.