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More Helicopter Drug Smuggling!


N1

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  • 1 month later...

Now the friggin' Robbie pilots are at as well!

 

Three Canadians arrested in helicopter marijuana case

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

SEATTLE -- There are few helicopter landing pads on U.S. Forest Service land in the rugged foothills of the Cascade Mountain range. So, federal prosecutors say, three men who wanted to land a marijuana-laden helicopter there had to clear one.

 

Jake Humphrey, Paul McCluskey and Shane Menzel - all Canadian citizens - were arrested near the clearing in rural Skagit County, about 55 miles northeast of Seattle, on Wednesday. They made their initial appearances Thursday in federal court in Seattle.

 

The trouble for the three began on Tuesday, when law enforcement officers noticed two men cutting trees that had fallen across a Forest Service road near Darrington. The officers took a closer look, and discovered that just up the mountain from the road was a clear-cut.

 

The Forest Service had approved no such cutting, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jesse Miller wrote in charging papers.

 

The next morning, agents were waiting as McCluskey and Humphrey drove toward the landing pad, Miller wrote. About an hour later, a Robinson R-22 helicopter flew in from the north and landed, piloted by Menzel. McCluskey greeted it while Humphrey stayed down the road and acted as a lookout, the agent wrote.

 

Agents watched as McCluskey removed two hockey bags and several smaller bags from the helicopter - 123 pounds of marijuana, according to the complaint.

 

Miller said in court papers that Menzel later admitted making three previous smuggling trips, and that McCluskey met him each time. Menzel claimed he was paid $150 per pound he transported.

 

The three did not enter pleas Thursday to one count of conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana. Their ages and hometowns were not immediately available.

 

The complaint does not say when the landing area was cleared or whether others may have been involved.

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  • 8 months later...

Helicopter pilot, two others arrested in pot smuggling probe

 

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

LOOMIS, Wash. -- A helicopter pilot was arrested in Canada and two Washington state residents were also in custody after authorities seized 325 pounds of marijuana, Okanogan County Sheriff Frank T. Rogers said.

 

The arrests Tuesday are the latest in a series of aerial pot smuggling attempts in recent months along the northcentral Washington county's sparsely populated 90-mile border with British Columbia.

 

"It's like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps coming and coming," Rogers said Thursday.

 

He said a number of law enforcement agencies received reports Tuesday that a helicopter crossed the border illegally, left five hockey bags at Blue Lake, about 10 miles south of Loomis, and then took off again.

 

Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested the pilot and seized the chopper after he landed in British Columbia, and U.S. authorities seized the marijuana and arrested two Henry P. Roman, 49, of Seattle, and James N. Burglund, 64, of Centralia, after stopping them in a pickup truck near the lake, Rogers said.

 

He said he did not have the name or other details on the pilot.

 

Roman and Burglund were jailed in Spokane for investigation of federal charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, the sheriff said.

 

The arrests marked at least the fifth time that authorities have intercepted airborne pot shipments since December. The previous four involved float planes, and in three cases people were caught with marijuana at or near remote lakes.

 

On a fourth occasion, after tribal police seized a float plane March 14 after disabling it by hurling rocks at the propeller on the Columbia River, the pilot made it to the other side and eluded sheriff's deputies. A man believed to be the pilot was later spotted and arrested on the Colville reservation.

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