Nature-Seeking Scouts Stumble Across Cocaine

When the boys of Cub Scout Pack 333 set out on a nature hike in Newport Beach on Saturday, they had no idea the trail would lead to a good deed.

The Scouts, led by Newport Beach lawyer Alan W. Courtney, were meandering through the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve when they discovered a small suitcase. It contained more than a pound and a half of cocaine with a street value estimated by police at $30,000, they later learned.

“We were in the Back Bay and we were looking at plants and the animals,” said Courtney, Cub master for the Scouts, who attend Anderson Elementary School. “We were walking along and we saw this suitcase stuffed underneath some bushes. It was like carry-on luggage.”

The two boys who found the suitcase--Courtney’s son Ben, 9, and Casey Luchesi, 8--took it to Courtney, who cut the zipper open with a pocketknife.

“There was a paper sack, and inside that was a pound and a half of cocaine in small packets. There also was a cigar box that had cocaine packets in it, and then there was a small testing kit in a pink plastic container.”

Because of the way it was packaged, Courtney immediately suspected it was cocaine.

“Well, it didn’t look like Sweet ‘N Low,” he said.

“We picked it up and brought it immediately to the Newport Beach Police Department,” he added. “They thanked us and gave all the kids badges.

“The kids knew what it was. They have a real strong anti-drug program at Anderson. They were real glad to find it and turn it over to the police.”