Fugitive who was hiding in Las Vegas is arrested

Jace Radke and Beth Slovic

Friday, July 16, 2004 | 9:32 a.m.

One of the U.S. Marshal's Office's 15 most wanted fugitives was avoiding authorities in Las Vegas for the past two years while allegedly growing millions of dollars worth of marijuana.

Reiner Kraan, 39, was arrested Wednesday night in Idaho as he fled toward Canada after discovering that authorities had learned he was in Las Vegas, Deputy Supervisory U.S. Marshal Fidencio Rivera said.

"He kept a very tight circle, was very careful and had financial resources at his disposal," Rivera said of Kraan, who eluded authorities for a total of six years. "That's a long time for someone to be able to go without being caught."

Kaarn was wanted based on charges from Honolulu, Hawaii, involving distribution of methamphetamine and for violating his probation on a 1997 convictions of burglary and possession of explosive devices and firearms.

Kaarn, originally from Hawaii, was last seen in 1998 when he led police on a high-speed car chase through Honolulu at speeds over 100 mph.

The Nevada Fugitive Investigative Strike Team, a task force made up of Marshals and local police, were tipped off that Kraan was in Las Vegas after Marshals from Hawaii and Los Angeles served a search warrant in Palmdale, Calif., on Monday.

Relying on information obtained in Palmdale, U.S. Marshals in Las Vegas began surveillance on Kraan's Desert Shores home and a second residence near the Lakes.

Kraan caught wind of the authorities closing in and left Las Vegas Wednesday with his girlfriend, a dancer at a local strip club, and headed north on Interstate 15 for Canada in seperate cars, federal officials said.

U.S. Marshals in Utah and Utah police stopped the girlfriend near Salt Lake City, but did not know that she was following Kaarn who was driving ahead of her in another car.

After interviewing the woman, who was not arrested but could still have charges filed against her, Kaarn was tracked to Idaho. He was arrested Wednesday night near Pocatello, Idaho after being spotted at a gas station.

Following the arrest the Las Vegas Marshal-led task force served search warrants on Kaarn's two Las Vegas homes and found that the home near Desert Inn Road and Buffalo Drive at 3367 Frisco Bay Circle was being used to grow marijuana.

Rivera said that 965 marijuana plants were recovered in the home, and that the plants had a potential street value of more than $1 million.

Neighbors said about 30 officers surrounded the home filled with marijuana plants late Wednesday evening and used some type of explosive devices to blow down the garage door as well as a metal gate guarding the front door.

The neighborhood is filled with large, upscale homes built in the last two decades.

The home itself was almost empty Thursday evening after officers had emptied it of two big trucks full of marijuana plants and a bunch of pot-growing equipment.

The garage and the front doorway were boarded-up, and the house still had a distinct smell of marijuana.

A bed and a stereo remained in the house along with some refuse, but in the back of the house was a big spa and a high-end grill.

A next-door neighbor, Jeff Waltos, said the alleged pot-growing homeowner approached him one or two years ago to ask if he could extend a wall separating the two homes. Waltos agreed, but then the alleged marijuana farmer built the wall much higher than he had said, more than 10-feet tall.

"My wife was suspicious from day one when they built that wall," Waltos said. "You don't put a wall up and an iron gate in a neighborhood like this."

Another neighbor, Muffy Sanders, said she also wondered what was going on behind the walls.

"I thought they were nudists or something," she said.

At Kaarn's other home, near Lake Mead and Buffalo, at 8209 Aqua Spray Ave., Marshals who arrived there early Wednesday evening found signs that Kaarn had left in a hurry.

"There were still clothes in his washer and dryer, so he didn't waste much time," Rivera said.

Kaarn could face federal charges in Las Vegas relating to the marijuana, but charges have not yet been brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Rivera said.

Kaarn will be extradited from Idaho to Hawaii to face charges there before he would face any charges in Nevada, Rivera said.

The fugitive has been on the U.S. Marshal's 15 most wanted list since October 2003.