OXNARD : Drug, Plane Seizure Follows Midair Chase

Federal customs officials on Wednesday proudly showed off 1,000 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $5 million and the stolen airplane they pursued in the air from the Mexican border and caught up with at the Oxnard Airport.

“It was a good bust,” said James D. Donahue, agent in charge of the Oxnard office of the U.S. Customs Service.

It all started about 6 p.m. Saturday with a blip on a Riverside radar screen that agents realized was an airplane illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near Calexico.

About 25 minutes later, a U.S. Customs Cessna Citation was on the airplane’s trail, following it to a small airstrip in Kern County near Buttonwillow about 8:30 p.m.

An agency Blackhawk helicopter was hovering five feet over the runaway as the stolen plane landed, but when the pilot saw the copter, he took off again. Officials fired twice at the craft, but the plane managed to get airborne once again, nearly colliding with the helicopter.

The two federal aircraft chased the airplane to Oxnard, where it landed about 9:25 p.m.

“He was very low on fuel,” Donahue said.

The pilot jumped out of the craft and ran from the airport, but was arrested about half a mile from his airplane by Oxnard police, who had surrounded the area.

Donald G. Parker, 45, was arrested at 7th and Rialto streets shortly after landing. The plane had been reported stolen out of Sacramento on June 14.

Three other people suspected of waiting for Parker to land were arrested on the ground in Buttonwillow.