Warbird Information Exchange

Saturday, June 27, 1987

Man Guilty of Trying to Smuggle 7,000 pounds of Cocaine
Pilot Conspired to import drugs onto Lake Okeechobee
By Carol Marbin
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE – Glen Avery Degelman, a West Palm Beach pilot accused of ferrying tons of cocaine for a Colombian drug dealer, pleaded guilty in both state and federal court Friday to conspiring to import 7,000 pounds of cocaine onto Lake Okeechobee.

Degelman, 34, signed a plea agreement in federal court, but U.S. District Judge Jose Gonzalez ordered that the deal be kept secret. According to testimony, Degelman will serve no more than 10 years in prison, the plea stipulates.

Degelman probably will be called to testify against his associates in a failed conspiracy to import 7,000 pounds of cocaine to Martin County using a Grumman Albatross seaplane, assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cornell said in court.

In state court, Chief Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Mark Johnson read into the record the provisions of a plea agreement approved by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Tom Johnson. Johnson said Degelman will serve no less than five years – and no more than 10 years – in prison.

He also will be required to testify in state court against his associates in the abortive smuggling run.

Cornell said Degelman paid nearly $40,000 to a Vancouver company that was refurbishing the Albatross.

The owner of Viking Air, the Vancouver company that outfitted the seaplane, told prosecutors “it struck him as somewhat unusual” that Degelman always paid in cash, Cornell testified. “He sometimes took the money out of his cowboy boots, and he always paid in cash,” Cornell said.

A second man, Alphonse Kohl of St. Louis, also pleaded guilty Friday to making thousands of dollars in payments to Viking Air. Kohl, 69, a retired dentist, is the father-in-law of Rodger Vance Davis, the alleged mastermind of the Albatross conspiracy.

Both Davis and Loren Lynn Florey, a Minneapolis pilot, are fugitives from both state and federal smuggling indictments. The statewide grand jury indicted Davis, Florey, and Degelman in October, but Florey and Davis had fled before they could be arrested.

A federal grand jury indicted Davis, Florey, Degelman and Kohl the following March.

Customs agents seized the seaplane Oct. 14th at Bowing (she obviously meant "Boeing") Field in Seattle, where it had been taken for a Federal Aviation Administration certification. It was flown to New Mexico to be stored as evidence, but the following month it was nearly destroyed by a bomb blast.

Degelman is scheduled to be sentenced by Gonzalez Aug. 7 at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. He was released on his own recognizance Friday after serving four months at the Palm Beach County Jail.

Kohl also was released Friday.

Which HU-16 was/is it?

With the reference to Viking Air, who by the way are in Victoria not Vancouver, I'd guess N7927(?).

OT geography lesson:
Vancouver is not on Vancouver Island, Victoria is.
Victoria is not on Victoria Island, nothing is.

Obviously the article was written by an American reporter and we have all heard just how bad American "students" are on the subject of Geography. Remember, she also didn't have a clue about "Bowing Field" in Seattle. And didn't Viking at least at some point have an address in Sidney, BC too? Maybe earlier on, back in the 1970's perhaps?

In any case, I no longer wonder so much how Viking Air managed to expand as much as they did back in the 1980's. They say that most of the high-end real estate in Miami was financed the same way....

I also very much doubt that the Albatross in question was N7927 (HU-16C c/n G-400; ex-USN Bu. no. 137927) because AFAIK it has never been bombed or blown up. (Did you miss that little detail about the Albatross in question?)

In any case, N7927 was Dennis Buehn's personal bird in the Navy - and for many years afterward. It wasn't so long ago that he finally sold it to someone else - or at least the registration changed to a Delaware registered corporation. Apparently, it is still an active and airworthy Warbird.

(Did you miss that little detail about the Albatross in question?)