British Archer with drugs

[deing]

From Belgian news :
Two people have been arrested Mondaymorning at a small Belgian airfield when they were loading drugs into an airplane. 63kgs of cannabis together with a jeep and the aircraft have been seized.

The aircraft involved was Piper Archer G-KITE based at Bournemouth

[Monocock]

They were obviously planning to get high as a .....

i'll get my coat

[ShyTorque]

They would never have got airborne anyway with a Jeep on board.

[Kolibear]

They would probably never have got home with out a Gee Pee Ess


(you're right, I'll collect my coat too)

[Pilgrim101]

Maybe they prefer grass strips ?

No sympathy from me - all drugs runners are scum

[PSF2J]

I think you guys are sniffing up the wrong tree.

Sorry, I'm off my head, it's full of crap jokes!

[Send Clowns]

Cool, I know that aircraft! Well done to the customs/police who got this one :D

[er340790]

BUT these days 63 kgs of grass has a lower street value than the 50 x 2 USG of AvGas they would have burnt collecting it!

[englishal]

Cool, I know that aircraft!
Yea me too as I used to fly it...... so I hope the old bill don't come knocking ;).....

[Send Clowns]

er

Even at £5 per 1/8 oz it is worth somewhere towards £90k on the street. I never bought any, but I used to know the rough price when I was at university and can't see how at street value it would be worth much less than the aircraft! 63 kg is a hell of a lot of hash - hop they were going o account for it on the weight and balance :p

[big.al]

British Archer with drugs....

... so have they finally accepted that Robin Hood was on weed?



(ok - I'll join the coat queue)....

[Crashed&Burned]

Every cloud, etc....when is Customs flogging off the aircraft?

[IO540]

Years ago I saw a program about drug traffickers in S America. It would pay them to buy a large twin just for the one shipment, abandoning it in some field (too short to take off from again).

I've never gone near dope (not even at univ in the 70s!) but I gather that the price is much lower today than say 10 years ago. Presumably also different substances go for different prices?

[nouseforaname]

Wonder if their turn around was as fast as Ryanair!!:E

I'm surprised that you don't hear about this more often. I'm convinced that light aircraft play a bigger part in drug running than one would expect.

I think a heli. would be an ideal machine. If someone came sniffing around whilst you were loading you precious cargo then you could just whizz off low level.

Good to hear the system works anyway

[IO540]

I would be a complete idiot to do a job like that. The supplier is bound to be aware of the transport method I would be using. He will likely see the tail number. Then he's got the pilot by the goo11ies for ever afterwards.

And that's assuming that the supply chain is not already under surveillance, which is pretty unlikely.

I very much doubt light aircraft play a significant part in the total volume imported. Far too much hassle, weather risk, etc. Boats.... that's something else. But vehicles must be doing most of it.

[Send Clowns]

nouse

'Tis true. The stories I heard from a certain CAA employee who shall remain nameless were very funny if worrying, but helicopter to UK is perfect for them. Ask Aerbabe about the aeroplane side - I'm sure there were some flying regularly from Coventry for a pick up when she was there.

[englishal]

I never inhaled, honest ;)

I feel sorry for the aircraft owner, maybe this is something to carefully consider before renting out your aircraft to unknowns? What is likely to happen to the aircraft bearing in mind that these pilots don't own it?

Personnally I'd use a yacht. In several years of owning a yacht, customs never once came onboard when sailing back from a foreign port. Mind you the only thing we ever imported was several trolly loads of booze from the hypermarket.

[IO540]

One could get a plane confiscated, in theory, for busting one of the French TRAs.

From the POV of an aircraft owner, I'd say that's he's more likely to get a confiscation (or a large fine, which the average renter won't be able to pay) with the average UK PPL renter doing that (no notams and/or doing dead reckoning over featureless N France) than trafficking.

Englishal - if you operate a really decent boat you WILL need to supplement your finances somehow. FAR more expensive than owning a plane :O

Thankfully all trafficking reported so far was done in G-reg... The CAA would just love to be able to catch an N-reg doing something like that.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Would CAA also charge a PPL doing so for carrying out commercial work without an appropriate licence?

G

[englishal]

Englishal - if you operate a really decent boat you WILL need to supplement your finances somehow. FAR more expensive than owning a plane
I got into flying and then got married. I couldn't afford all three so the boat had to go :{ Still, the other two are more fun;)