HELICOPTERS USED TO LOOK FOR DRUGS ON PUBLIC LANDS

Federal and local government agencies organized a helicopter reconnaissance
of public lands in southern Utah over the past week in an attempt to locate
areas where controlled substances are being illegally manufactured or
cultivated.

The U.S. Forest Service and five narcotics task forces from 13 Utah counties
were joined by a counter-drug unit of the Defense Department in the project.
Officials would not reveal if any suspicious areas were identified.

The request to use helicopters from a Marine Corps unit out of Edwards Air
Force Base in California came from the Forest Service's Law Enforcement and
Investigations branch, according to a news release from Dixie National
Forest.

Federal law prohibits the use of active duty and reserve military personnel
in a law-enforcement capacity unless requested by a law-enforcement agency.
Their participation was limited to aerial reconnaissance operations. The
Marine units used three CH 46 helicopters, with front and rear rotor blades,
similar to those transporting troops in the Iraq conflict.

Other agencies participating in the operation included the Utah Highway
Patrol, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service, the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

UHP Lt. Lee Piper, based in Cedar City, said several troopers in his office
took part in a support role in the mission, which entailed scanning the
terrain with the naked eye or binoculars.

Piper spent several hours in a chopper looking for isolated fields of
marijuana in the rugged mountains of the area. He said they were on the
lookout for pipes suggesting an irrigation system. Suspicious areas would be
examined by law-enforcement officials traveling on foot or all-terrain
vehicles.

In the news release, Forest Service Special Agent Charlie Vaughn called the
operation a success in that area law-enforcement agencies gained valuable
"counter-drug support," while military troops gained training opportunities
related to their military missions.

The aerial investigation included national parks, BLM lands and portions of
Dixie, Fishlake and Manti-LaSal national forests.

Since the Defense Department started the program in 1989, it has partnered
with 450 law-enforcement agencies across the nation for 5,500 counter-drug
missions, according to the news release.

In 2002, more than 690,000 marijuana plants were seized from the country's
national forests, the release added.