Pair Indicted On Charges Of Plane Theft

An aviation broker and a former Forest Service official were indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on charges they conspired to steal firefighting planes in a controversial military exchange program under investigation for five years.

Roy D. Reagan, the broker, and Fred Fuchs, former assistant director of Forest Service fire and aviation management, were charged with conspiracy and theft of government property in the indictment issued by a grand jury in Tucson, Ariz., U.S. Attorney Janet Napolitano said.

The FBI, the Pentagon, the Navy, U.S. Agriculture Department and General Services Administration all participated in the investigation that includes allegations some of the planes were put in the hands of contractors who used them to fly covert missions for the CIA.

The two men are accused of conspiring to illegally convert excess military aircraft valued at $28 million to private airtanker contractor use.

They allegedly made false statements to the Defense Department, committed mail and wire fraud and accepted payments for their services in transferring 28 aircraft to private contractor use, Napolitano said in a news release.

The indictment also accuses them of a single count of theft based on the unauthorized transfer of title of a C-130 air tanker by Reagan and Fuchs from U.S. government ownership to TBM Inc., an airtanker operator in Tulare, Calif.