By Mike Simmons
As the old saying goes, “With some criminals, outthinking them isn’t hard; it makes police officers look good!”
Such was the case early Monday morning, December 8, 1980. Now, think…1980. The war on drugs didn’t look like it does today. The large-market drug of the day was marijuana. It was so popular that people would risk a lot in order to make a lot.
Thirty-six-year-old Donald Robert Booth and Bertram Mark Schwartz, 41, were in the business. And they had a good setup. They had a good supplier – in fact, a HUGE supplier. They also had a unique method to bring in such a large haul…they would fly it in. Donald was a pilot, so they could use a plane. And, neither man was known in Pensacola. They were both from out of town – Donald was from Milwaukee, and Bertram was from Ft. Lauderdale. Nobody would recognize them as drug dealers, so no one would be suspicious, right? Sounded like a good plan…sort of.
The plan was to fly into the airport – which was small compared to where they came from – land in the middle of the night, unload the 1500 pounds of marijuana off the plane, and be gone before anyone knew anything.
But there were a few details that hadn’t occurred to Frick and Frack. First, to fly in at night is not a good idea without checking if a policeman was there. Beginning in the early 1970s, a police officer, by federal law – had to be present at the boarding of each plane. Shortly after that law came into effect, the Pensacola Police Department began assigning officers at the airport full-time. So, to try to sneak into the airport in the middle of the night was not a good idea. It would have been better if they had come in during the day.
Second, the geniuses thought, “If we come in without any lights, nobody will see us, and, if they do, they won’t be suspicious.” Really?
Third, if you are gonna be a bad guy, don’t make other bad guys angry with you.
So, here is what happened: It was the middle of the night and nothing…NOTHING was going on. In fact, nothing is going on in the whole north end of the city. Quiet, until the telephone rang. The anonymous caller informed the three Pensacola Police Officers – Jim Simmons, Bill Chavers, and John Hollingsworth – that a small plane carrying 1500 pounds of pot was going to be landing at the Pensacola Airport in a few minutes.
NOW there was something to do. This would be easy, as there are no other planes coming in. The plane in question wouldn’t be A plane coming in. It would be THE plane coming in…sounded easy. To make it even easier, a few minutes later, a small private plane lined up to approach. But just to make sure nobody mistook it for a legitimate plane, this one turned his lights off – kinda a signal he was trying to not be seen. Hard to miss.
When the two brain surgeons finally taxied to a stop and got out, a police car wasn’t waiting for them. Three police cars were. Booth and Schwartz might have been dense, but even they figured out the game was up.
Neither had shirts or shoes on. So, a few hours later, they were standing – wihtou shirts and shoes – in front of US Magistrate Robert Crongeyer, Jr. He set bond at $50,000 each. That’s $195,063.71 today.
In 1980, the pot that was seized was valued at $750,000. That’s three million in today’s market. But that wasn’t all. Bringing the drugs in was not only a federal crime, but the pair also violated Florida statutes by possessing more than 20 grams of marijuana – WAY more. Judge William Rowley set their bond a $105,000 each, making a grand total of $155,000 each.
And the borrowed plane valued today at ¾ million dollars? It was confiscated by US Customs.
US Customs agents said that the bust was the largest confiscation ever in the history of Escambia County.
A bad day for the bad guys.