Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Helicopter pilot, two others arrested in pot smuggling probe
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.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested the pilot and seized the chopper after he landed in British Columbia.
The arrests 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.
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.
