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Authorities have been pulling bundles of cocaine from a New Mexico lake near where a small plane crashed, but they haven't found any survivors or bodies.
State police divers continued searching Heron Lake on Monday for the craft. Witnesses reported it crashed about 10:30am. Sunday into Heron Lake, said New Mexico State Police spokesman Lt. Eric Garcia.
State police were using sophisticated sonar equipment to help them locate the plane.
Lake patrol officers found several packages of cocaine that are about a kilogram, or 2 pounds, floating at the lake about 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Santa Fe.
The type of aircraft and the number of people on board were not known, Garcia said.
State police have blocked the road to Heron Lake and are not allowing people into the area while the search continues.
Federal authorities will investigate the cause of the crash.
In April 2010, state police called about the hard landing of a small plane outside Tucumcari in eastern New Mexico found a stash of more than 400 pounds (180 kilograms) of marijuana inside the plane and hidden in the bushes nearby. Police valued the drugs at more than $500,000.
Air trafficking historically has been a significant issue for the Southwest border states, state police Chief Robert Shilling said on Monday.
"I won't say it's keeping us super busy and we're interdicting a plane a week, but ... air smuggling in New Mexico always has been and will continue to be an issue for law enforcement," Shilling said from state police headquarters in Santa Fe.
The largest problem now comes from ultralight craft used in trafficking along the southern border, he said.
Local police typically turn seizures of drugs from aircraft over to federal agencies for prosecution.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for New Mexico did not have statistics about prosecutions resulting from aeroplane drug seizures.
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