Local News in Brief : Boater Seeks Hearing
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The owner of a sailboat detained under the government’s “zero tolerance” drug policy will be given a chance to seek a hearing on the U.S. Customs Service decision to confiscate the boat, officials said Tuesday in Long Beach.
The decision to seize the 34-foot vessel was made after a meeting Monday among federal prosecutors, Customs officials and U.S. Coast Guard officers, who found a small quantity of marijuana aboard the boat, said John Heinrich, director for the Customs Service’s Los Angeles district.
The owner-operator, Keith Sweetman Curtis, 45, of San Pedro, was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana and for an unspecified outstanding warrant when Coast Guard officers found 2 to 5 grams of the drug on the craft shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday.
Federal prosecutors said they had not yet determined if they would prosecute Curtis for drug possession.
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