ESTIMATED 500 POUNDS OF POT WERE STOLEN FROM BURN PILE

By Tim Steller The Arizona Daily Star

Investigators estimate that thieves made off with about 500 pounds of
a 7-ton load of marijuana at a southside incinerator last month.

Sgt. John Sanders of the Pima County Sheriff's Department said he
arrived at that conclusion through a tip from a confidential
informant, and by examining the amount of ash left at the
incinerator.

The marijuana disappeared Nov. 17, after it was transported by U.S.
Customs Service agents from El Paso to Tucson for incineration.

The agents delivered the load to a southside incinerator used for the
disposal of seized drugs, but they left before it finished burning.

The next morning, incinerator employees reported the
burglary.

``My estimate is that it had burned for about eight or nine hours,''
Sanders said. ``That's why I think only about 400 or 500 pounds has
been missing. There was a lot of ash. It had burned a lot.''

The informant reinforced that conclusion and pointed investigators to
a remaining portion of the load, Sanders said. Investigators this week
recovered 50 pounds of marijuana they believe was part of the original
load.

Sanders would not specify where agents found the marijuana, except to
say it was on the south side of the Tucson area.

Five hundred pounds ``is still a lot of marijuana,'' Sanders
said.

He estimated it would be worth around $350,000 in Tucson, and more on
the East Coast. The entire 7-ton load would have been worth around $10
million.

The original load was comprised of many smaller seizures from West
Texas and New Mexico, customs spokesman Roger Maier said. Customs
officials shipped it to Tucson because there is no usable incinerator
in El Paso, he said.

The burglary occurred sometime between 5 p.m. Nov. 17, when the
employees left, and 6:30 the next morning, Sanders said.

``Our investigation is very intense, and we are still hotly pursuing
the culprits,'' he said.

Sanders said he does not suspect that customs employees involved in
the incineration took part in the burglary.

Customs internal affairs investigators are sharing interviews with the
agents involved, but the Sheriff's Department will not interview them,
he added.

Ten customs employees involved in the incineration were placed on paid
administrative leave last month. They remained on paid leave
yesterday, Maier said.

After the burglary, Customs Service Commissioner Raymond Kelly
convened a narcotics destruction task force, Maier said.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady