DRUG TASK FORCE SET UP AT AIRPORT

Along with the usual collection of pilots, business travelers,
early-bird BalloonFest visitors, and coffee-sipping airport bums, a
few other folks have been hanging out at the Tahlequah Municipal
Airport this week.

Agents from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics have made a temporary
airbase of sorts out of the airport, pinpointing marijuana plants in a
four-county area with two olive drab Bell JetRanger helicopters, and
spraying the offending greenery with a white Bell UH-1 Huey.

They even brought their own mobile control center, complete with
satellite phones, weather forecasting equipment, four air-conditioners
(to keep the electronics cool), and all the amenities of home -
including a TV that was tuned Wednesday afternoon to (what else?) a
real-live cops reality show.

Tahlequah is the first base of operations for the OBN's efforts in
northeastern Oklahoma; previously this summer, they've been in the
southeastern part of the state, operating out of Hugo, McAlester,
Idabel, and Poteau. They'll be based in Tahlequah until Friday.

"We're utilizing a task force concept," said Chris Smith, operations
officer for the OBN's Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression
Program. "We have officers from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, the
District 13 Task Force, the Cherokee Marshal Service, and the Wetumka
Police Department. We're also working with the Cherokee County
Sheriff's Office, as well as the sheriffs' departments in Wagoner,
Sequoyah, and Adair counties."

Smith said the program is called "Eradication/Suppression" because, as
pot-growing in Oklahoma has changed over the past several years, so
have law enforcement efforts to curb it.

Sprawling multi-acre fields of marijuana, according to Smith, are a
thing of the past.

"That kind of large operation is one of the things we've eliminated,
and that's why we're in suppression mode instead of eradication mode,"
he said. "Oklahoma has dropped from being one of the top 10 producers
of marijuana to No. 39 in the nation."

Once pot's been spotted, it's either pulled up by hand (there was a
pickup bed-full at the airport Wednesday), or sprayed with the Huey -
which, Smith added, doesn't operate on a "cropduster" basis.

"We actually drop a sprayer down out of the helicopter and spray
individual plants," he said. "And the chemical we use is standard Round-up."