Originally Posted by
USMCFLYR
I don't have a background in LE, but IN THIS CASE (and I know you didn't single this case out in your post), if the police had been given a description of a car speeding away full of armed bank robbers or known drug suspects - they would have stopped that car and acted in the same manner until they found out that the description of the car was wrong
I am sure if the police stopped such a suspected vehicle (which this plane was at the time - wrongfully - but not their fault), I'm pretty sure that they would not be approaching the car with smiles and a warm welcome.
There's a lot of stuff in this case I just don't get. The airplane was claimed to be stolen 9 years ago. That would be like if someone told a cop...."hey, here's the tag to a car stolen nine years ago - have fun!"
Not only that but - a 9 year old case...wouldn't the CBP/DEA handle that one...especially involving aircraft?
...could be wrong, but don't LEOs generally run car tags through the respective agency that issues the registration, which should have been done here...especially considering it was second time in a year it's happened to the same aircraft. The LEOs themselves may not have been at fault, but surely the leadership was.