Search Is On for Escaped Drug Ringleader
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PLEASANTON, Calif. — The U.S. Marshals Service on Friday issued an all-points bulletin for a Southern California drug ringleader who escaped from federal prison after learning he faced new charges in Oregon.
Jon Vermouth, 36, fled a work party outside the Federal Correctional Institution at Pleasanton on Oct. 1, authorities disclosed Thursday.
That was the same day he learned that a federal grand jury in Oregon had indicted him this summer on new drug charges, U.S. Marshals Inspector John Stafford said.
Vermouth had been serving a 12-year sentence for a 1984 conviction on charges of running a Santa Barbara-based drug ring that supplied marijuana and cocaine to dealers in Los Angeles, San Diego and Oregon.
He was with several other inmates on a work party cutting weeds when he escaped.
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