Opinion ID: 484754
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the august 1980 unsuccessful load

Text: 26 In exchange for their assistance in retrieving his seized plane, Laughingwell offered to allow Bennie and Stan to use a 402 Titan aircraft to run another load from Jamaica. Stan arranged for Basso, Graham, Beech and Merritt to serve as the ground crew at an airstrip west of Lake Okeechobee. Delarm was to pilot the aircraft with Billy Bishop as his copilot. 27 Ambrit notified Bennie that the aircraft left Jamaica twelve hours ahead of schedule. Bennie attempted to contact Stan, Graham, and Basso, but they were not available. Finally, Bennie contacted someone named Jim who owned a pickup truck and they went to the airstrip but they never saw the airplane. 28 After arriving at the airstrip and not seeing anyone, Delarm and Bishop circled the strip until they were almost out of fuel. They then decided to dump the marijuana on a straight line toward Miami and to land at Opa Locka West airstrip. Upon attempting to land, the plane slid off the runway and both tires went flat. 29 Stan once again accused Bennie of stealing the marijuana. Ambrit, however, became satisfied that Bennie had not stolen the marijuana when they flew over the area where the bales were dropped and Ambrit saw Customs agents tagging and seizing the marijuana.