ELIAT, Israel (14 Oct 2003) -- A man wanted by the United States for 13 years on charges of trying to smuggle 25 tons of hashish into Oregon has been captured in Israel, authorities said Tuesday. Until his arrest, Sidney Marvin Lewis had been one of the U.S. Marshals Service's most-wanted fugitives. The long manhunt had often frustrated and baffled law enforcement officials. Israeli police made the arrest late last week in the southern seaport town of Elat, where Lewis had set up a scuba diving shop along the Red Sea and lived with his wife, authorities said. Fingerprints confirmed his identity Monday, and Lewis faces an initial hearing Wednesday in Israel. On its wanted poster for Lewis, the Marshals Service said he is known to be associated with organized crime. The agency also described him as a skin diver, polo player, sky diver, and an electronics and computer expert. Lewis, 66, fled the United States in January 1990 after being charged with possession with intent to distribute 25 tons of hashish in Oregon. Over the years, his trails had gone cold, and he had become an enigma to law enforcement. "From our end, he was a ghost," one law enforcement source said. In recent months, the case was turned over to Tom Nunley, a senior inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service, who vowed before his colleagues that he would capture Lewis. "Everybody laughed. Everybody kind of snickered," Nunley said in a telephone interview with CNN. Tuesday, Nunley couldn't hold back his sense of pride -- and relief -- that Lewis was behind bars. "It just reinforces to us that you can run, but you can't hide," he said. "People are held accountable for their actions." Authorities recently received information that Lewis was likely in Israel. | | BUSTED: Eliat dive shop owner Sidney Marvin Lewis Nunley said he met with Lewis' grown daughter, and she "began to solidify that he was in Israel. "It was just that rapport I had with her that opened up the floodgates," he said. The daughter also provided Nunley with an itinerary of a trip of hers to Israel, and authorities soon got the break they needed. Diplomatic security authorities photographed a man who appeared to be Lewis in the Tel Aviv airport the day his daughter arrived, September 7. However, another hurdle still had to be overcome: A 10-year statute of limitations for his extradition had run out. U.S. authorities provided Israel with a 17-page document detailing their work on the case through the years, and a stay was imposed for the statute of limitations. Authorities then made the arrest. "I really believe [Lewis] was stunned," Nunley said of the arrest. "I think he believed himself to be safe." Wednesday's hearing in Israel will deal with the issue of the statute of limitations. If the process goes forward, Lewis' extradition would likely take another three weeks. |
