Drug-traffickers' Trunk-mounted Evidence-ditching Rocket Fails to Take Off

[Bill Stewart]

My brother's summary, spoken by a Wile E. Coyote cartoon figure:
"2 KY meth traffickers rigged up their car so if cops closed in a small 
rocket with their stash would launch itself from the trunk"
.....
"that never works"  "meep meep"


Fox News Story:
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,161609,00.html


Drug Rocket Fails to Take Off


Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Drug dealing really may be rocket science.

Two accused methamphetamine traffickers apparently rigged up their car so 
that if cops closed in, a small rocket carrying their stash would pop up 
from the trunk and launch itself far from the long arm of the law.

For some reason, the rocket never achieved liftoff when Missouri State 
Highway Patrol (search) officers pulled over Michael Ray Sullivan, 41, and 
Joseph C. Seidl, 39, both of Kentucky, on June 24 in Kingdom City.

The $13,534 in cash in the 1990 Ford Thunderbird was interesting enough, 
Kansas City U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Don Ledford told the Columbia 
(Mo.) Daily Tribune.

Far more intriguing was what was in the trunk: three dud pipe bombs and a 
"hobby-style" rocket, three to four feet long, all packed with meth worth 
up to $145,000.

Ledford explained that a web of ropes and pulleys lifted the rocket into 
launch position when the trunk lid was opened. The rocket could then be 
ignited from inside the car using the dashboard cigarette lighter.

Cops are pretty certain the rocket was meant to be an escape pod for the 
drugs, but Ledford diplomatically declined to speculate.

"But they did have the meth inside the rocket," he admitted, "and it could 
be launched from inside the car."

- Thanks to Out There reader Jen J.