Drugs allegedly taken from crash

The experimental, homemade plane flew 1,500 miles from the Texas-Mexico border before it apparently ran out of fuel, clipped trees and landed upside down in Detroit, killing the pilot.

Gloria Johnson, who lives across the street from the park, said she heard a boom, saw the plane hit a tree and then crash. She said the pilot was still alive when neighbors ran to help.

"There were big bundles of drugs and money all around the plane," Johnson said. "The bundles of marijuana looked like two big suitcases."

Johnson said she saw people leave the scene with some of the packages.

AP PHOTO Detroit firefighters and investigators look over the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in a vacant lot in west Detroit on Sunday. The plane carried more than 300 pounds of marijuana, and the pilot died in the crash.

"A couple of guys came to help, then grabbed the bags of drugs and left," Johnson said. Other eyewitnesses gave similar accounts.

Yesterday, authorities were trying to locate neighbors or passersby who arrived soon enough to witness any looting.

"There are some allegations that some people did take some marijuana from the plane," Customs agent John Holmes said at a news conference. "That has not been confirmed."

Neighbor Robert Mosely said he can understand the mentality of people who would loot a crash site.

"You see it's money, you see it's marijuana, you get as much as you can as fast as you can," said Mosely, who heard the crash and at first thought it was an auto accident.

Mosely, a lifelong resident of the working-class neighborhood, said he arrived too late to see any looting. But he said people act crazy when a lot of money is involved.

"It's like when an armored car crashes. People will actually crack their cars up to grab a hundred dollars," he said.

Detroit police also were seeking witnesses to any looting, crash investigator Officer Lawrence Closurdo said.

"If nothing, Detroiters are opportunists," neighbor Ethel Hood told The Detroit News. "Those guys weren't dummies."

The pilot carried two sets of identification, but Customs agents believe he was Douglas Dufresne, of Indialantic, Fla., about 50 miles southeast of Orlando.

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