S. Tahoe Olympian’s mother arrested on drug charges
By Stephen T. Watson, Buffalo News
The mother of an Olympic snowboarder was arrested one week ago in the Town of Hamburg after investigators say she came to this area from California to pick up payment for a large shipment of marijuana, police announced Monday.
Myra Hight, 51, of South Lake Tahoe is a suspected member of a nationwide marijuana-distribution ring and remains in federal custody here on drug-trafficking charges, officials from the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and the Hamburg Police Department said at a news conference. Police found more than $77,000 in cash in her vehicle after her Feb. 20 arrest.
“We believe that she is part of a larger-scale drug-trafficking organization that’s been operating both nationally and here in Erie County involving the distribution of large quantities of marijuana,” sheriff’s Capt. Gregory Savage said.
Investigators have no indication Hight’s daughter, Elena, a half-pipe snowboarder who competed in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, was aware of her mother’s alleged drug trafficking, said Sheriff’s Senior Detective Alan Rozansky.
The younger Hight, a likely participant in the 2014 Winter Olympics, was expected in Buffalo Monday to help her mother post bail, Rozansky said.
