Indictment Alleges There Was Plot To Spring Drug Kingpin From Jail

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Two months after Shoshone County drug kingpin Charley Burnes was arrested last July, his supplier allegedly conspired to break him out of jail, according to a federal grand jury indictment.

The indictment, served Jan. 14 on Burnes and Phillip "Ike" Griner and unsealed recently, alleged that Griner planned to free Burnes so he could help recover narcotics and cash that FBI agents overlooked during Burnes' arrest. The items allegedly were stashed in Burnes' house in Terror Gulch near Osburn.

FBI agents arrested Griner near Vancouver, Wash., on Jan. 23 following his indictment for conspiracy to manufacture or distribute cocaine.

Burnes, 59, who is serving a 19-year prison sentence on four drug charges and two firearms violations, was indicted along with Griner on an identical charge.

Griner, 55, formerly of Shoshone County and Colombia, is scheduled to make an appearance tomorrow before U.S. Magistrate Stephen Ayers in Coeur d'Alene.

The indictment charges Griner with smuggling cocaine to Burnes from Colombia between April 1988 and September 1990, as well as traveling to Alaska several times to help establish a drug market.

It also alleges Griner conspired to break Burnes out of the Latah County Jail in Moscow, Idaho. Though the plot never materialized, Griner and Robert Ives of Osburn, Idaho, drove to Burnes' home Sept. 20 planning to recover the drugs and money, according to the indictment.

The same grand jury that indicted Griner and Burnes is conducting an inquiry in Boise into public corruption in the Silver Valley.

The probe has focused on whether the sheriff's and prosecutor's offices allowed prostitution, gambling, liquor and drug activities in Shoshone County.

One witness, former deputy Ernie Peyer, told the grand jury Burnes had close ties with Sheriff Frank Crnkovich, and that the sheriff was aware of Burnes' widespread drug dealings.

The Jan. 14 indictment alleges Burnes sent Douglas M. Scranton to the Spokane Airport to pick up Griner, who was returning from Colombia with shampoo bottles containing paste-liquid cocaine.

Griner delivered the bottles to Burnes, who converted the paste-liquid to powder, diluted it and repackaged it for sale, the indictment alleges.

Griner then arranged other trips to Colombia from Spokane in the fall of 1988, according to the document, and allegedly traveled to Alaska from March through May 1989.

At the time of Burnes' arrest last July 17, the drug dealer was in possession of three kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine and more than $40,000 in cash and precious metals.