The State - News from Nov. 11, 1988

A federal judge sharply criticized a U.S. Customs Service agent for “running amok” in his probe of a $189-million drug-smuggling case and trying to coerce testimony from two potential witnesses. But U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel would not quash subpoenas issued by a federal grand jury that followed up on the investigative work of agent Norman Wood. The witnesses, Patel said, would have been subpoenaed without Wood’s threats. Woods told the witnesses in taped phone conversations that they would go to prison if they did not testify and warned then not to report the calls. He was working on the “drug tug” case, in which government agents on May 23 seized more than 50 tons of hashish and marijuana from a tug and barge in San Francisco Bay. Lawyers for the witnesses had sought to quash the subpoenas. Patel instead ordered that the grand jury be shown transcripts of the calls.