NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Three men were in Washington County jail Wednesday after police said they witnessed them unloading 170 pounds of marijuana from a small plane at Huntsville Municipal Airport.
Don Warren, 28, of Springdale; Jolly Eubanks, 34, of McKinleyville, Calif.; and Bruce Latorre, 48, of Ferndale, Calif.; were arrested Tuesday, each on a charge of possession of a controlled substance, according to a probable-cause report.
The investigation could become a federal case, said Tommy Flowers, resident agent in charge of the Fayetteville office of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Huntsville police were told of the flight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which was tracking the single-engine, 1966 Cessna, the arrest report stated.
When police arrived shortly after 8 p.m., they found the men loading duffle bags of marijuana from the plane into a Dodge Durango sportutility vehicle, according to the report.
Flowers said the marijuana was of a high quality found in states where it’s legal to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Flowers said the men had nearly $10,000 in cash, and that the DEA is one of several agencies investigating.
Two of the men were observed unloading the plane until they spotted the approaching police car, at which point one of the men shut the lift gate and got into the driver’s seat of the Durango, police said. The other started closing the doors of the plane, according to the arrest report.
Warren was identified as the driver of the Durango and Latorre as the pilot, the report said. Police said the men gave conflicting stories of where they were flying in from.
Police said Latorre was in possession of a pipe and that the money was in a backpack belonging to Eubanks, who was in the Durango when police arrived.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 02/24/2011