Kingpin

Brian Bennett grew up in a three-bedroom house with seven brothers and sisters on a fading stretch of West Florence Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles. By the time he was 22, he was paying his rent in a fashionable apartment complex off Wilshire Boulevard with $100 bills and doing business from Detroit to Denmark, where, according to federal investigators, he once ran up an $11,000 hotel bill in four days.

Move the furniture into the garage and hide the goldfish. That would be sound advice if brothers Jon and Jeremy King are invited over for dinner. Jon, Golden League champion at 160 pounds for Highland High, and Jeremy, a wrestling official, will grapple with each other at a moment's notice. They've broken chairs and tables as their parents, Betty and Del, scramble to get out of the way. "They start roughhousing and they start rolling around, and things get broken in a hurry," Del said.

This happened sometime around 1975 or '76, I'm not sure. But around there. I was sitting in a Basque restaurant near the old railroad station in Fresno, listening to George Ballis complain about his life. Ballis came from the Saul Alinsky school of politics and had dedicated himself to fighting the big water boys of California. He never seemed to understand why millionaires should be getting federally subsidized water to grow crops that were sold at federally subsidized prices.

The Dekopon, a Japanese hybrid of mandarin and orange reputed to be the most delicious citrus in the world, created a sensation last year when California-grown fruit showed up at local groceries under the marketing name Sumo, after a dozen years of secrecy and intrigue. The new crop has started arriving at stores and will be available at the Santa Monica farmers market starting next Wednesday from the Dekopon kingpin himself, Mike George of Lindsay, who grows 16 acres of the variety and organized the group that secured the rights to it. Large, very easy to peel and seedless, with a distinctive bump at the top, the Dekopon has gossamer-thin membranes enclosing its segments and flesh that feels firm at first bite but then melts in the mouth.

A court-appointed attorney for an accused kingpin of one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels said Monday that he would not seek bail. Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, 36, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to import and distribute controlled substances and money laundering. "Even if he were granted bail he'd be held by the immigration authorities," said Arellano Felix's lawyer, David Bartick.

The former Liberal Democratic Party kingpin credited with picking three of Japan's last four prime ministers goes on trial Thursday on tax evasion charges that could force him to pay $18.3 million in fines. Shin Kanemaru, 78, and his former secretary, Masahisa Haibara, 49, are accused of evading taxes on a combined $19.2 million in income allegedly concealed between 1987 and 1991. Kanemaru's troubles, which began last August when he admitted accepting $4.

An El Cajon man who admittedly made several million dollars as a kingpin of a methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution ring urged anyone involved with drugs to get out immediately. "Look what happened to me," Manuel Battaglia, 46, said shortly after a judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison for maintaining a criminal enterprise and defrauding the federal government by not reporting his illicit profits.

A man accused of operating one of the nation's largest cocaine and marijuana distribution networks was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Omar Rocha Soto, 39, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to operating a continuing criminal enterprise, which prosecutors call a "kingpin" charge. The plea agreement allowed him to avoid a life sentence. Rocha was arrested Aug. 17 as part of a federal investigation that resulted in 102 indictments in more than a dozen cities.

A reputed Afghan drug lord who authorities say operated with the protection of the Taliban has been captured and faces charges that he tried to smuggle more than $50 million worth of heroin into the United States, authorities said. Bashir Noorzai, 44, who is on the U.S. list of most-wanted drug kingpins, was ordered held without bail at his initial court appearance in Manhattan. If convicted, he could face life in prison. The full circumstances of Noorzai's capture were not made public.

Argentine authorities arrested the widow and son of slain Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar shortly after a television program revealed that police were shadowing the two as part of a money-laundering investigation. Security Minister Miguel Angel Toma said the arrests of Victoria Henao Vallejos and Juan Pablo Escobar in Buenos Aires had been prodded by the program's revelation.