Democrat and Chronicle du lieu suivant : Rochester, New York • Page 3

SUNDAY DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, ROCHESTER, N.Y., FEBRUARY 22, 1981 Half-ton haul Trap nets 4 suspects, load of marijuana By NORMA LOVE Staff Writer Undercover federal agents pretended a briefcase filled with $62,000 contained $280,000 in order to lure four suspected drug traffickers into a trap at the RochesterMonroe County Airport yesterday morning. The trap was carefully set after a four-month investigation, said Walter Behrens, the Drug Enforcement Administration agent in charge. During the last few minutes before it was sprung, its success hinged on whether the suspects counted the payoff money before delivering 1,029 pounds of marijuana, Behrens said. He said the haul had a street value of close to $1 million. Other sources familiar with marijuana transactions place the street value closer to $650,000.

week." He flipped open the lid to the briefcase, flashed the contents and snapped the lid shut. The suspect went back to his car and radioed the others with a citizens band unit that the money was in the plane. had all the hundred dollar bills on top," one undercover agent explained later. "He didn't even look at the Three undercover agents waited for delivery just before 10 a.m. inside a small plane outside Key Aviation, 1313 plane and realize Scottsville Road, when one of the suspects called and said there." they wanted to count the money, Behrens said.

A few minutes Agents only had $62,000 $50,000 loaned by the Roch- parking lot and ester Police Department and $12,000 in DEA money Lorence Sweetman, $20 bills, $50 bills, and $100 bills stacked in a small Springwater, briefcase. 26, of 95 Beechwood As the suspect approached the small plane, he passed Bazinet, 23, of 355 about a dozen other undercover officers from the Rochester Mancuso, 27, of Police Department and the Monroe County Sheriff's De- ed without resistance. partment who were positioned nearby, but the suspect kept When agents going, agents later said. The suspect also passed a marked Bazinet's Doberman sheriff's car in the area, they added. The dog bared his The DEA agent with the money inside the plane told the said.

Bazinet chained suspect nervously, "I've been sitting on $300,000 for a taken to the Animal men escaped serious in- and when this empty U.S. Genesee truck crashed through a Ciaccia fence on St. Paul Street was plunged almost 200 feet into the River. The driver, who works for Trucking Co. Inc.

of Rochester, charged with driving while intoxicat- Winter's cold damaged By DICK EISENHART Staff Writer PENN YAN This winter hasn't been a great grape season, but Finger Lakes growers say they will have to wait until early May to determine how severe the damage has been. "And we still can have a lot of winter before then," said Michael Morehouse, who has 92 acres of grapes on Bluff Point in Yates County. "That's what really worries me. If we get a fast temperature drop of 30 or 40 degrees after the warm weather we've had we could be in real trouble." Growers at the Finger Lakes Grape Growers Convention yesterday were told that from 20 to 'He didn't even realize all that marijuana wouldn't fit in the Federal agent all that marijuana wouldn't fit in later, a black panel truck entered the approached the plane. 28, of 5555 Canadice Lake Road, Livingston County, and Richard A.

Bazinet, Drive, Gates, his brother, Nickolas McCall Road, Greece, and Charles A. 3108 Elmwood Brighton, were arrest- opened the doors to the van, Richard pincher was guarding the marijuana. teeth and threatened to attack, Behrens the dog to a pole. The dog was later Shelter. photo by Michael ed.

Ciaccia leases the truck to office. The driver and his passenger, not a postal worker, were treated Rochester General Hospital. vineyards the same tempertures, among grapes of same variety and from cane to cane within the same vineyard." Thomas Zabadal, cooperative extension specialist for the Finger Lakes grape industry, said growers may be able to compensate for bud loss by careful pruning and cultivation. Morehouse said, "The buds are only lost for one year. I am worried about the trunks of the vines.

If they are lost it will be for more than just this year." Other growers agreed that the trunk loss could be serious and that bitter cold during the remainTurn to GRAPES, page 2B Agents confiscated green garbage bags full of marijuana, four vehicles, a Magnum handgun from Sweetman and a Magnum handgun from Richard Bazinet, Behrens said. The marijuana had been compressed by a trash compactor into 15- to 20-pound bricks. "We feel that the people we arrested today are a major part of the drug traffic in the Rochester area," Behrens said. The marijuana was not grown locally, he said, and is believed to have come from Florida. A small portion will be sent to New York City crime labs for analysis and the balance will be destroyed.

Meanwhile, the marijuana is being stored in a vault inside the Federal Building, 100 State St. Armed with a search warrant, agents also searched the Beechwood Drive house, and confiscated a small amount of hashish. The four men were charged with possession of drugs with intent to distribute and conspiracy. Both are federal charges. They were taken to Monroe County Jail and are to be arraigned in federal court tomorrow morning.

Behrens said federal agents began negotiations to buy 10 tons of marijuana in November. Agents in Las Vegas, and Rochester began simultaneous but separate investigations, then discovered the Las Vegas contact was affiliated with traffickers in Rochester. "We just happened to run into two bad guys independently of each other who said they were headquartered in Rochester," Behrens said. photo by Michael Brown Two handguns confiscated by federal agents sit on one bale of marijuana amid other bags of the drug. this morning Geneva man dies in crash in Connecticut David M.

Brind of Geneva, a junior at Union College and a champion fisherman, died yesterday in a car crash 1 in New Canaan, Conn. Brind, 20, was a pre-law student and planned to attend law school and then return to Geneva to practice with his father, David H. Brind, Geneva's acting city judge, said Jane Stauff, Brind's secretary and a family friend. New Canaan police said Brind was a passenger in a car driven by Anthony Piotrowski, 21, of New Canaan. Police said the car was heading west on Wahackme Road about 2:30 a.m.

yesterday when it went off the right side of the road and hit a stone wall. Brind was killed instantly, police said, and Piotrowski suffered many injuries. He was listed in stable condition last night at St. Joseph's Hospital in Stamford, Conn. A native of Geneva, Brind was a 1977 graduate of Geneva High School.

He was well known in the area for his fishing and was a former U.S. National Amateur Bass Champion. Ms. Stouff said Brind was in Connecticut for the weekend to visit Piotrowski. His family didn't know where the two had been going when the accident occurred.

Police said the incident is under investigation and had no further information. At Union, Brind was vice president of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity and a member of the glee club. He is survived by his parents, David H. and Shirley Brind of Geneva; a brother, Charles, at home; a sister, Susan, of New York City; and a grandmother, Laura Wharton of Phoenix, Ariz. Shotgun blast hits face A Wolcott man suffered a shotgun blast of birdshot in the face during a fight at an all-night beer party in the town of Marion early yesterday, Wayne County sheriff's deputies said.

An Arcadia man was jailed on reckless endangerment charges stemming from the incident, sheriff deputies saidRichard Kopeckie, 26, of Lummisville Road, suffered facial wounds when a shotgun discharged during the free-for-all at 4 a.m., said sheriff's Detective Lt. Richard Pisciotti. Police said 15 pellets struck Kopeckie in the face. He also suffered powder burns. He was taken to Rochester General Hospital and later transferred to Strong Memorial Hospital.

He was discharged later in the day. David Frey, 24, 6057 Whiting Corners Road, was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment. He pleaded innocent in Lyons Town Court yesterday and is being held without bail in Wayne County Jail pending grand jury action. Pisciotti said about 30 people were at a party inside a new barn on Hall Center Road in the town of Marion. The barn and the shotgun belong to Alfie Frankie of Eddie Ridge Road, Marion.

Rivers, streams receding Rivers and streams swollen by recent rains and melt-offs yesterday began receding after flooding low-lying areas the past few days. A flood watch was in effect Friday and yesterday for Black Creek, Oatka Creek and the Genesee River, but all three began dropping at mid-morning, according National Weather Service officials at the Rochester-Monroe County Airport: A weather service spokesman said the river crested at 16.22 feet at the Ballantyne Bridge near Rochester Institute of Technology in Henrietta, where flood stage is 18 feet. In Bergen Officials deny they'll be like cops By MICHELLE FLECKENSTEIN and DAN BOWERMAN Staff Writers BERGEN Trustee Richard Partridge said he can't see himself chasing drunk drivers, busting vandals or lurking around corners waiting for someone to break a village law. The thought that any of the village's officials will be doing that under a proposed local law has been exaggerated, some village officials say. The proposed law, outlined recently at a public hearing, would allow the mayor, zoning enforcement officer and village trustees to write tickets for violating local ordinances, such as alternate parking.

But reports of the proposed law published in Batavia's Daily News upset Partridge and other village officials. "It created quite a furor," he said. "One person read the article and said it sounded like the gestapo and I have to agree." Village lawyer Leon Katzen said, "It's a good example of how a completely innocent sort of thing is played up." Partridge, a trustee for six years, said village officials simply want ordinances enforced that are being overlooked because there's no money for a village police force. "We aren't talking criminal acts of any kind that come under the penal law," he said. "We have no power under those and we don't want it.

People got the impression the trustees would have the power to go out and stop traffic, arrest speeders, vandals, all sorts of things." Trustee Joseph L. Sapienza agrees. "We're not going to chase speeders or arrest robbers," Sapienza said. "A Jesse James- Wyatt Earp type of thing, we don't want to get involved in." He said complaints about speeders, burglars or other types of law-breakers would be referred to official police departments. Partridge said the trustees and mayor don't intend to patrol village streets.

"If we're out and we see a parking violation, or if one of us comes along at 2 or 3 a.m. and there's a snow emergency and there are cars parked all over, I'd probably stop and ticket them," he said. Sapienza said village trustees probably will do most of the work after receiving complaints. "Parking was getting so that emergency vehicles couldn't get down the streets," he said. "Our streets are narrow, and in some cases, they have been completely blocked." Brown River Two Rochester jury yesterday Postal Service wrought iron plunge 100 percent of the grape buds were killed among different varieties in more than 80 vineyards surveyed after.

the December freeze. Elvin Tyler, a vineyard consultant for the Taylor Wine Company in Hammondsport and a member of the task force that made the survey, said they checked temperatures, elevation of vineyards, drainage, management, crop size and distribution of injury. "We learned that the American varieties are more winter-tolerant than the French-American hybrids or the vinifera grapes (those derived from European varieties)," he said. "We also learned that there is a wide range of damage in areas of It was a junket without the junk It was a junket without Dom Perignon, lobster Newburg, dancing at the Ritz or any amenities that sometimes get footloose members of Congress scolded in the press. With the nearest sun-drenched beach 3,000 miles away, Rep.

Barber B. Conable Jr. and four House colleagues set out for a two-day visit to Canada in February. The purpose of the excursion to Ottawa and Toronto, made the week before last, was to learn why people in Canada save almost twice as much of their income as Americans. The congressmen were invited by the Canadian Centre for Legislative Exchange, a private government study group that arranges four such trips to Canada every year.

In turn, Canadian legislators make the same number of annual visits to the United States. the post also at 'The reason Canadians save more than Americans has a lot to do with Rep. Barber B. Conable "Always the question is asked, 'Did you have to take the trip? Couldn't you have read up on it said William Gradison, R-Ohio, one of the House visitors. "I think the answer is no." A member of Congress talking to bankers, Turn to BERGEN, Page 2B By MIKE MEYERS Staff Writer economists and government officials face to face, he said, is more likely to get frank answers to questions "There are things people will tell you that they won't put on paper," Gradison said.

James Pesando, a University of Toronto economist, seemed to bear out Gradison's point. Ignoring a reporter sitting nearby, Pesando told the congressmen that Canadian officials profit politically from threats to repeal a measure that indexes personal income taxes. Indexing prevents Canadians from paying more taxes simply because their pay has been driven higher by inflation. Threats to repeal indexing are "a way a politician can make people grateful for something they already have," Pesando said. "When someone threatens to kick you in the groin and then doesn't, you thank him." Turn to JUNKET, Page 3B The exchanges have been held the past nine years, always in private.

But this time, a reporter was allowed to sit in on the Toronto session. It was a rare look at how members of Congress quietly go about visiting other countries for lessons that can be used at home..