NORTH PORT — Back in the wild 1970s and ‘80s, airplanes packed with drugs soared the skies over North Port, Charlotte and DeSoto counties, and other largely undeveloped areas around the region.
North Port, back in those days, had around 6,000 people, five churches, six banks, and 15 police officers.
And there were miles and miles of paved roadways without any homes or businesses in sight. These roads were the prime places for illicit pilots to land seatless planes, packed to the brim with bales of marijuana and other contraband.
Along with North Port, cities like Cape Coral also saw a number of drug planes — with one being found abandoned back in 1979, just a few miles south of Punta Gorda.
And Charlotte County Sheriff Alan LeBeau had confiscated and sold three drug planes by 1979, according to an article in the Florida Sheriff’s Association newsletter.
Addie McWilliams, a 65-year resident, shared a story about one of the planes that crash landed in North Port in 1983.
“They mistakenly landed on a waterway — thinking it was a road,” McWilliams said.
North Port, then nicknamed “North Port International Airport,” according to McWilliams, saw its fair share of narcotic flyovers.
Their system was simple.
A truck below would have the seats that were missing from the airplane. Then, the plane would land. The pot would go in the trucks, and the seats would be reinstalled in the planes.
The trucks would also have fuel to resupply the airplanes for their next journey.
McWilliams said locals figured out the system when they found a truck.
“It had seats and fuel in the bed,” he said.
That particular truck was seized and failed to carry out its duty.
Generally, though, McWilliams said, trucks would gather the marijuana and drive off, for the remainder of the weed’s trip to dealers.
Such schemes were done for years, according to McWilliams.
One of the planes doing so was the aircraft that crashed in 1983. Before the splashdown, onlookers saw a low-flying plane and called the police station to report it.
Former North Port Police Officer Kevin Sullivan served from 1983 to 2012.
Vessels would land on Estates Drive, generally, a long straight street with only three or four houses at the time, he said. Police even gave one homeowner a radio so he could call in about low-flying planes and the officers on patrol would hear it immediately.
The plane that crashed in 1983 had been packed to the gills with 26 bales of marijuana, Sullivan said.
“Feds were chasing the guy,” Sullivan said.
The North Port force followed suit when the pilot entered the area. “It came down to eenie-meenie-minie-moe, he went down eenie-meeni-minie — splash,’” Sullivan said.
Eventually the plane and marijuana were fished out of the waterway and seized. The pilot ran away.
The man, however, was eventually captured after some “good ol’ boys” saw him, dressed in a white silk shirt and loafers, wandering around lost near a ranch, across the county line in DeSoto County.
He told them he was hog hunting — an obvious lie, given his attire.
They reported him to the DeSoto County sheriff, and he was arrested, held with a $1 million bond, Sullivan said.
Back in North Port, 24 of 26 bales were burned in a hole in the ground in North Port Estates. They used kerosene to burn the drugs. Winds blew the smoke toward Arcadia.
“For the first time, the entire city of Arcadia was happy,” Sullivan joked.
The other two bales were kept in the old police headquarters’ evidence room. Rats feasted on them for years and were equally joyful.
Eventually, however, federal agents came back in and seized “everything,” Sullivan said. They even sold the plane to someone. It was repaired in North Port’s impound lot, which is now the North Port Skate Park.
The purchaser actually took off with the repaired plane by using Tamiami Trail as a runway.
ARE DRUG PLANES STILL POSSIBLE?Drug planes, like the one that crashed in 1983 and others, were common in the area during that time, according to people who lived here then.
McWilliams and Sullivan wonder just how many flew over.
“Drug dealers have a very intensive intelligence service,” McWilliams said.
McWilliams, for one, is positive that drug dealers used North Port as a focal point, among other cities.
“North Port was perfect for smuggling,” he said
Nowadays drug planes are not likely to be an issue.
“Anything is possible, but is it likely? No,” said NPPD Deputy Chief Chris Morales. “Back then it was like dropping bales in the Everglades.”
Morales said that calls do sometimes come in about low-flying planes. Generally, though, they are merely spraying for mosquitoes.
Technological advances like plane-tracking apps also make things more difficult for big-time smugglers. But in the battle between the law and dealers, things are always fluctuating, according to Morales.
Such advanced technology was not there decades ago, so much of Florida, including North Port, was prime real estate for special deliveries.
“God only knows how many drug planes landed in North Port,” Sullivan said.
Most Popular
Comments / 0