Thieves steal five small planes (Mexican Crop-dusters?) [Update: Planes found]

Reuters ^ | Oct 1, 2008 | Miguel Angel Gutierrez

[tlb]

Nothing fancy in this crime, just a plane theft.

That said, a "fumigation" company's airplanes. Crop-dusters wanted VERY urgently by somebody with a lot of armed men.

[maeng]

Kinda scary, I am in Texas...you never know what terrorists could do with those small planes!

[ChuteTheMall]

I thought Mexican crop-dusting is what I did after eating at Taco Bell.

[PGR88]

Just want to view from above their vast land holdings in Phoenix, bought with Alt-A mortgages....

[Velveeta]

Stolen crop-dusters ping.

[TaxRelief]

Probably want the petrol.

[Just another Joe]

Crop dusters can fly very low and land just about anywhere so to me there are two possibilities.

The higher probability is that they want the planes to hop back and forth across the border to deliver drugs.

The lower probablilty is that they want the planes for their "dusting" capability and are terrorists trying to release a biological agent, either in Mexico or the USA.

[Jo Nuvark]

Were they shouting “ALLAH AKBAR”???

[NoLibZone]

I am no longer worried or concerned.

Not after seeing all that taken place since 9/11.

The blue cities that would be the targets, are the very ones that fight protection the most.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

A priori, much more likely drug smugglers than terrorists. Also, had they been terrorists, they probably would have killed the guard, just for kicks.

Still, I say anything crossing the southern border without authorization, shoot ‘em down.

[Dixie Yooper]

Right after 9/11 there were rumors about crop dusters being stolen so they could be used to deliver bio-weapons over I-66 during rush hour in Washington,DC.

[Calpernia]

Thanks for the ping. This is disturbing.

[MHGinTN]

La Raza building their ariforce.

[TruthConquers]

“Also, had they been terrorists, they probably would have killed the guard, just for kicks.”

But so would have drug lords. No witnesses who can talk. That guard is lucky to be alive. Either set of armed thieves would have killed him.

[cripplecreek]

I think it was Jim Traficant who rented a plane in Canada, filed a completely Canadian flight plan, and made it all the way to Chicago before anybody asked who he was and what he was doing there.

[texas_mrs]

I wonder if they know how to land a plane.

[milford421]

Thanks Velveeta...I posted this before I saw your ping. Sorry. Appreciate the heads-up

[slag]

The five planes were taken from a hangar at an unpaved airstrip belonging to a fumigation company in the town of Navolato. They had been taken out of service earlier this year by the army on the grounds they presented irregularities that violated civil aviation and airport laws.

Maybe the owners just taking their planes back.

[Yo-Yo]

Right after the Anthrax letters were sent, there was a rash of “stolen cropduster” stories.

Fortunately nothing came of it.

Sounds to me like drug dealers stealing the aircraft that the government have been using to kill their marijuana fields.

[1curiousmind]

“...trying to release a biological agent, either in Mexico or the USA.”

_______________________

Now that you mention it...releasing it in Mexico is almost as good as releasing it in the US.

we’re so screwed.