Fort Smith Drug Bust

Local law enforcement agencies found more than one hundred marijuana plants at the Fort Smith Airport. Officers are chopping down over $100,000.00 worth of weed, and airport officials aren’t happy about it. Kent Penney, the Fort Smith Airport Director, explains, "We certainly dont like our property being misused for this and other land owners need to watch for it because, if they dont watch it, you know, their property could be misused for things like this as well." Even though the Fort Smith airport is big on security, there are some unsecured areas. Penney says, "We certainly have property thats outside the secured area and this is one of those areas that is not within that secured fence." Trained spotters use helicopters to fly over suspect areas. They found these plants strategically spaced out in the underbrush of the airport’s property. William Hollenbeck, Captain of The Sebastian County Sheriff’s Department, explains, "Typically growers will not put their entire crop in one area. They like to try to hide it out in different patches throughout the area that theyre growing. They think that local law enforcement, you know, might not find it, but in this case they were dead wrong." Officers plan to catch the growers in the next few days, but Hollenbeck says the best part is, "that were able to locate it before it actually hits the street." Law enforcement agencies have set up surveillance cameras. They say they do have suspects, and now they’re working hard to make some arrests.