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Tarpon mudbogger's arrest closes rivalry
By RICHARD DANIELSON, Times Staff Writer A grudge in the world of competitive mudbogging led one driver to start his own mud track -- and to organize a ring of thieves to steal the equipment needed to dig it, authorities said Friday. Roofer Ronald A. Wells, 37, of Tarpon Springs was charged with being the leader of a heavy-equipment theft ring suspected of stealing at least $500,000 worth of equipment in Florida and North Carolina, according to Pinellas County sheriff's officials and the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor. The two agencies filed a 17-count information in Pinellas County on Thursday charging 10 defendants with felonies that include racketeering, conspiracy, operating a chop shop and grand theft. The 10 defendants, some of whom face up to 30 years in prison if convicted, were scattered from Tarpon Springs and Holiday to northern Florida and North Carolina. Wells was a competitive mudbogger who used to drive at a Land O'Lakes mud pit operated by Ray Goodwin, according to Pinellas sheriff's Sgt. Greg Tita. But investigators believed that Wells felt that Goodwin "showed favoritism" to other racers, so he decided to open his own mudbogging track in Bladen County, N.C., Tita said. Recruiting friends, employees and relatives, he leased 580 acres in Bladen County, about 30 miles east of Fayetteville, N.C., and cleared some of the site of trees and underbrush. Wells advertised mudbogging every Saturday, according to a Web site devoted to the sport, and authorities said he charged $10 admission. But Wells also needed heavy equipment to dig the mudbogging pit, and that could have cost up to $500 per vehicle per day to lease. So, authorities say, he had friends and relatives steal the equipment he needed. Some equipment was stolen from Florida and taken to North Carolina; other equipment was stolen in North Carolina, used in Bladen County and later taken to Wells' father's home or brought to Florida. The investigation that led to this week's charges started with the reported theft of just one piece of equipment, a $30,000 Massey-Ferguson tractor that was reported missing from Oldsmar in June. A confidential informant led detectives to Wells, who was charged in July with operating a chop shop on his property at 1110 E Court St., Tarpon Springs, dealing in stolen property and grand theft. Charged with Wells last month was 21-year-old Orvall Lee Landreth of Winter Haven, who faces additional charges in the information filed this week as well. At Wells' property in Tarpon Springs, investigators found three stolen trucks from Pasco County, Hillsborough County and Ohio, as well as pieces of a fourth truck from which vehicle identification numbers had been ground off. "We knew that there was something going on in North Carolina . . . but we didn't know what they were doing with the equipment until we got a more thorough investigation going on and discovered the mud track," Tita said Friday. "The common denominator turned out to be the reason why they needed the heavy equipment." The equipment recovered at Wells' property included one vehicle used in the sport, authorities said. "They got one mudbogger -- one vehicle that had been stolen and he had modified it and put different components in it and that's what he was racing around in," said chief assistant statewide prosecutor Joseph Larrinaga. "There are other people that we're looking at and I'm very confident that we're going to be adding other charges," Larrinaga said. In addition to Ronald Wells and Landreth, charged this week were: Wells' father, Rubart A. Wells, 70, of Elizabethtown, N.C. Donald Charles Betsch, 28, of Raiford. Kenneth Michael Hale, 37, of Tarpon Springs. Leamon Allen Wells, 72, of Branford. Dominic Joseph Mogavero II, 25, of Holiday. Jesse Adam Walker, 21, of Tarpon Springs. Christopher Paul Johns, 21, of Holiday. Daniel Curtis Flowers, 25, of Holiday.
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