Three arrested in pot seizure

LOOMIS, Wash. – A helicopter pilot was arrested in Canada and two Washington residents were also in custody after authorities seized 325 pounds of marijuana, Okanogan County Sheriff Frank T. Rogers said.

The arrests Tuesday are the latest in a series of aerial pot smuggling attempts in recent months along the north central Washington county’s sparsely populated 90-mile border with British Columbia.

Rogers said law enforcement agencies received reports Tuesday that a helicopter crossed the border illegally, left five hockey bags at Blue Lake, about 10 miles south of Loomis, and then took off again.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested the pilot and seized the copter after he landed in British Columbia, and U.S. authorities seized the marijuana and arrested two men, Henry P. Roman, 49, of Seattle, and James N. Burglund, 64, of Centralia, after stopping them in a pickup near the lake, Rogers said.