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Updated at 7 p.m. ET: President Barack Obama may have inadvertently won a skirmish in the war on drugs Thursday when a small plane that encroached on his airspace was intercepted and found to be hauling more than 20 pounds of marijuana, sources told NBC News.
About 2 p.m. ET, the single-engine Cessna 182 entered airspace that had been restricted as Obama was returning to Los Angeles International Airport aboard Marine One, the presidential helicopter, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said in a statement.
KNBC-TV
President Barack Obama was returning to the Los Angeles airport, where he arrived Wednesday aboard Air Force One.
The pilot never responded to repeated attempts to make contact by air traffic controllers, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Two F-16 fighter jets from March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County intercepted the plane and followed it as it made its way to a safe landing, where the pilot was met by local authorities, NORAD said.
NORAD would give no further details, citing operational security, but sources told NBC News Justice Department correspondent Pete Williams that the plane was escorted to Long Beach Airport. Authorities searched the plane and found about 22 pounds of marijuana on board, the sources said.
Jay Blackman, Scott Foster and Pete Williams of NBC News contributed to this report by M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.
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Leave a Comment:
Cannabis should be completely legal.
It is...just don't get caught with it.
Wow 20lbs of weed, huge bust. That will show those drug cartels! lol What a joke. We spend way too much money and stupid things like this. It seems to me we could be spending our money a little more wisely than busting someone for something as minor as weed. If it was heroin ok maybe I could see it.
When your living in pain (as I am) I can attest to the FACT that marijuana, is a huge help in getting through your day...I can also attest to the fact that at least on this site...pro legalizer's are the majority....Just say KNOW and just sayNOW!
As big as Obamas head is, it's amazing any aircraft are even allowed off the ground in this country. Wouldn't want to break the no fly zone rule!
What an idiot. all he had to do was answer the tower, tell them his destination and get diverted around the helicopter to get there with no questions asked.
The War on Drugs = Failure, just do the math.
And the medal for the dumbest person, criminal in the world goes to-the envelope please-Moe, Curly and Larry rolled into one.
Yet another victim of the unconstitutional laws against a plant given to us by our creator. What would Jesus do.......He'd spark up a fatty and get everyone on AF1 high. So would George Washington!
yep!
Genesis 1:11-1:12:
11And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Ezekiel 34:29
King James Version (KJV)
29And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.
(hemp, anyone? it has helped people survive through famines through edible hempseeds)
Matthew 15:11
King James Version (KJV)
(Jesus quoted)
11Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
"In the later times, some shall … speak lies in hypocrisy … commanding to abstain from that which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." (Paul: 1 Timothy 1-4)
"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
- George Washington
...we are wasting billions of taxpayer dollars fighting this "War on Drugs" that started in the Nixon era...and guess what..pot is easier than ever to find..your never going to irradicate a plant someone can grow in their back yard......I personally if you "Had to Choose" between a drunk driver or a Stoned driver, I'd take the stoner any day of the week, he's going to be the one driving too slow....unlike a drunk who tends to have a led foot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just legalize already....we can tax it and educate and put cartels in Mexico out of business because Ca grows better weed anyway !
This is a LOAD OF CRAP. They didn't find JACK on that plane, they PLANTED IT. As a pilot, I know that TFR's (Temporary Flight Restrictions) pop up at any given time in any given place without prior notice. Flying VFR (Visual flight rules) does NOT and SHOULD NOT require a flight plan. Do you have to file a route plan with the DMV every time you drive you car? USAF data shows that in 2008 the F-22 costs $44K per flying hour and the F-15 costs $30K per flying hour. Is that worth 20 lbs of supposed weed? This nonsense was enacted in the name of terrorism, and all it's doing is raising our national debt, and tax rates on the lower middle class. They planted the weed just to not get negative press on their stupid waste of tax payers money on the F16's. A Cessna weighs less than a car, so it's not any more danger than your wife's gas wasting view blocking road hazard causing SUV (with 1 kid and a bag of chips in the back seat).
so i guess now some worthless pigs feel like real heros because they got a "dangerous" drug dealer locked up to "protect" us. dubya tee eff!!!
Now what's the Prez gonna do without his pot?
Maybe Odumbo was having a weekend supply dropped at his vacation location? Michelle and the girls were gone... Tiger Woods is known to have rolled a dubbie or two in his day also... Just saying...
Now that is customer service! Front door delivery! Drop it off next to the first tee!