A STRANGER CAME TO TOWN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505310001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 2, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505310001-8
_.w:.
ARTICLE APP "RED
. [ P 3AQE
M
WASHINGTON POST
2 June b85
aka ~
--Came
J. Anthony Lukas is a Pulitzer Prize winning jucrrnul
1st and author. His next book, "Common Ground"
A. Knopf), will be published in September.
L.
INY LINGLE
suspected that something was wrong
when the palm trees appeared in front
of City Hall.
It was the spring of 1981. soon after
the ice had melted on the Rum River
and the snows had streamed off the pine-
crested hills. All of a sudden. 10 palm
trees and 58 other tropical plants materi-
alized on the grassy strip before the
municipal building in Princeton. Minn.
The exotic foliage, a gift from a Latin
millionaire named Casey Ramirez.
prompted mixed feelings in this city of
3100. "I think it's one of the greatest
things that ever happened to Princeton."
said auto mechanic Phil Griswold. But
Edith "Tiny" Lingle, a leader of the
Civic Betterment Club. had her doubts.
"It doesn't fit," she said. -If they have
them in Casey's culture. that's fine, but
they are not part of this culture." To
Lingle and others, Princeton seemed
more a pine tree kind of place.
Casey was vague about how he earned
all this money, claiming variously to be
a gynecologist, a professional tennis
player. a whiskey distributor, a major
stockholder in a computer company and
a_ cent.
LA -CIA
Only last October did a jury in St.
Paul Federal District Court determine
that Casey was none of the above but,
in fact, a cocaine smuggler. Convicted
of conspiring to smuggle some 400
pounds of the drug into Florida. he was
sentenced to 20 years in prison. His
case is on appeal.
J5Y 4,L hOTW Lukas
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505310001-8