Mexico Holds 3 Yachters in Weapons Case

NEWPORT BEACH —  A combination vacation and business yachting trip has turned into a nightmare for three Orange County men jailed on suspicion of gun-running in Cozumel, Mexico.

Eugene McClung Jr., 71, owner of Newport Beach-based Certified Marine Expeditions, and two other men were jailed early last week after a Mexican federal prosecutor accused them of trying to smuggle two AR-15 semiautomatic rifles “for purposes of insurrection.”

The other two men are Scott McClung, 36, of Laguna Beach, who is the elder McClung’s son and the yacht’s captain, and first mate Noah Bailey.

Paul Holaday, acting captain of the Rapture, said the arrests came about 18 hours after the 145-foot vessel made an unplanned maintenance stop at Cozumel on Aug. 10 and was boarded by the local federal prosecutor and a dozen soldiers.

William Bollard, an Irvine-based lawyer representing the men, said the AR-15s--civilian versions of the military M-16--were bought legally in Florida for protection. The yacht also was carrying several shotguns for shooting skeet, Bollard said.

Nine other members of the sailing party, including the elder McClung’s wife, Mozelle, 72, and three of their grandchildren, have been stranded aboard the yacht after their passports were confiscated, Bollard said.

A preliminary hearing was underway Monday in which a federal magistrate was to decide whether there was sufficient evidence to hold the men for trial, Bollard said. Conviction carries prison sentences of three to eight years, he said.

Bollard said that under Mexican law, a judge has until Wednesday to formally charge the trio or order them released.

The odyssey began when McClung picked up a new $8-million yacht for his charter business, which organizes Christian excursions off Baja California. He took his family and some crew members to Florida to sail the yacht to Newport Beach.

About 150 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula, though, the yacht developed problems.

Soon, a federal prosecutor and soldiers showed up.

“We showed them all the weapons, the shotguns and the ammo,” Holaday said. But “a few hours later, they came back.”

The prosecutor “claimed he never saw the guns [earlier], never heard about them and that we were trying to hide them,” Holaday said.

Researcher Greg Brosnan in Mexico City contributed to this story.