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Out on probation, convicted cocaine dealer Wayne Reid nabbed for DUI in Golden

Rick Carroll
The Aspen Times
Wayne Alan Reid

The ringleader of Aspen’s “over-the-hill gang,” a group of cocaine traffickers in their 60s who were indicted by a Denver federal grand jury in 2011, is back in trouble after Golden police arrested him on suspicion of drunken driving.

Wayne Alan Reid, 69, has agreed to take Antabuse — its users become violently ill when they consume alcohol — in wake of his August arrest.

Reid was released from federal prison in March after completing 47 months of his 53-month sentence for selling cocaine. He currently is on five years of supervised probation, which prohibits him from consuming alcohol and illegal substances. If Reid fails to comply with his sobriety monitoring, he will be ordered to a residential re-entry center, according to court documents.



Reid was a key figure in a network that smuggled 200 kilograms of cocaine between Aspen and Los Angeles for 15 years. The group also had ties to a Mexican drug cartel, authorities alleged.

Meanwhile, Reid, now a Golden resident, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Jefferson County Court to DUI and failure to display head lamps, court records show.




The arrest came after police pulled Reid over at 12:35 a.m. Aug. 8 for not having his headlights on. He allegedly had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and told the officer he had left a bar but hadn’t consumed alcohol. He failed a voluntary roadside-maneuvers test and refused to take a blood test to determine his blood-alcohol content, court records allege.

He is due back in court Nov. 5 for a pretrial conference.

John Henry Schlie, Reid’s attorney in the cocaine-trafficking case, said Monday he had little knowledge of the DUI arrest and is not representing the former Aspen resident. Reid could not be reached for comment.

Report: drunk at drug dealer’s memorial

Reid’s parole officer in the cocaine case, in a petition to a U.S. District Court judge to modify conditions of his probation by ordering him to take Antabuse, also reported that Aspen police notified her June 9 that he was seen intoxicated June 5 at a local bar. There, a memorial service was held for an Aspen “drug trafficker” who was well-known to local authorities, the petition said.

Reid also was supposed to submit to a random substance-abuse test the following day, June 6, at a treatment center in Denver. But he was a no-show, probation officer Laura D. Ansart wrote in the petition.

Ansart wrote she confronted Reid about his behavior at a July 10 meeting.

“(Reid) admitted to consuming alcohol and to attending a memorial service where he knew he would be surrounded by felons and former drug associates,” said Ansart’s petition, which was introduced to Reid’s federal criminal file Aug. 28. “The defendant further stated that he missed the random substance-abuse testing the following day because he was driving back from Aspen, and he believed that the treatment agency was open until 7 p.m., rather the closing time of 5 p.m. on weekends. The defendant admitted that he knew he could not consume alcohol while in a program of substance-abuse testing and treatment. The defendant was verbally admonished, and again instructed not to consume any alcohol.”

On Aug. 11, three days after his DUI arrest, Reid left his probation officer a voicemail to report he had “a couple of cocktails” prior to the arrest.

Reid told his probation supervisors that he does not have a drinking problem, the petition says.

“(Reid) continually stated … that he does not have a problem with alcohol, and he further stated that his mistake on the night of his arrest was not turning on his headlights, failing to recognize that alcohol consumption was his ‘mistake,’” Ansart wrote.

The cocaine case

Reid and five other Aspen-area residents were arrested May 19, 2011, at their homes or places of work. Four other suspects in the Los Angeles area were arrested as part of the DEA investigation, which began in 2010 with the help of a local confidential informant. The DEA arrested another suspect, former longtime Aspen resident Montgomery Chitty, in February 2011 in Big Pine Key, Florida. Chitty currently is serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida federal penitentiary.

Reid, as part of a plea deal with the U.S. prosecution, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.

rcarroll@aspentimes.com

Crime


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