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$1M in pot on beach: Around $1M in pot was discovered on a beach in Southern California near an Air Force base. A spokesperson said the pot may have been “about six feet tall.”
The Air Force said the large bales of marijuana are worth at least of $1 million and were washed up on Wall Beach beach in Southern California.
Base officials discovered an approximately 20-foot aluminum boat next to the marijuana close to Vandenberg Air Force Base.
“It looked like it would have taken up the majority of that boat … some of my folks are telling me that it looks like the bales are about six feet tall,” Col. Nina Armagno, 30th Space Wing commander, said in a recorded press conference.
After a search, base officials said they were not able to find a suspect or any weapons.
“At first we saw footprints, and we were wondering whose they were … it ends up it was two individuals who are Vandenberg-affiliated,” Armagno said, adding she is not sure if one person could have transported the marijuana.
Armagno also said base officials “are not sure” when the boat landed.
“With that boat being flipped over and someone must have taken the time to take out the contents of the boat and set it up in such a way, and then camouflage it. They took some time to do this,” she said.
Armagno said that since the suspects put much effort into shipping the drugs, Air Force officials believe they might come back. Or, the suspects might have realized they were on an Air Force base and abandoned it.
“We are going to be extremely vigilant [in] the area until it is cleaned up and secured completely,” she said.
In a statement, Vandenberg said Homeland Security investigators were sent to deal with the marijuana.
Armagno said the beach is closed this time of year.
In December 2012, 11 people were arrested and 3,000 pounds of marijuana were seized in a smuggler boat off the California coast on a remote Santa Barbara County beach, which is located just miles from Vandenberg. Some of the people on the boat were illegal immigrants from Mexico.
And in January 2012, a U.S. aircraft carrier group recovered some 19,000 pounds of marijuana dumped into the Pacific Ocean near the Mexican border.
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