FLOATPLANE ACCIDENT LEADS TO DISCOVERY OF MARIJUANA CACHE

The situation did not begin suspiciously. A pilot reported fuel trouble and
made an emergency landing Feb. 23 on Duke Island, puncturing a float on a
rock in the process.

But within five days, Alaska State Troopers would discover more than 40
pounds of marijuana near the site and arrest the pilot on drug charges.

A day after the landing, the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad helped the
pilot patch the float. But the patch leaked, the plane flipped during
takeoff, and sank in 70 feet of water.

Peter Drewery of Nanoose Bay, British Columbia, recovered his plane Feb. 25
with a barge and crane. The ordeal appeared to be over.

Curiosity was roused when Drewery, 45, asked members of the rescue squad
about taking a charter boat back to the island, 30 miles south of
Ketchikan. The squad contacted troopers, who decided to search the island.
Sgt. Lonnie Piscoya found four duffle bags Feb. 27 near where Drewery
landed. The bags were brought back to Ketchikan and Piscoya obtained a
search warrant. In them, he found 42 pounds of marijuana.

Troopers, the U.S. Forest Service and Ketchikan police went back to Duke
Island a day later with the bags filled with some marijuana, but mostly
newspaper. The plan was to return them to the area and to catch whoever
came to pick them up, Piscoya said.

Drewery, who had chartered a boat to the island, had just finished combing
the area when authorities arrived.

"We were just a few minutes late," Piscoya said.

According to troopers, Drewery said he "forgot something." However troopers
noted he was empty-handed after his search.

Drewery was arrested for misconduct involving a controlled substance in the
fourth degree and taken to the Ketchikan Correctional Center. His cash-only
bail was set at $100,000.