NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Wednesday, April 9, 1997

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

97-140 - Biscayne NP (Florida) - Drug Incidents

Several significant drug interdiction activities have taken place in the park
over the past several weeks:

o Customs units were involved in a chase of a 30-foot boat believed to
have been employed in drug smuggling through the park on March 19th. 
The pursuit began around the park's northern boundary and headed east
toward the Bahamas.  During the chase, a Customs boat was rammed and
the suspects threw marijuana bales overboard.  Four people were
arrested and 310 pounds of marijuana and a 30-foot Phantom boat were
seized.

o On March 30th, Customs chased a 28-foot vessel through Biscayne Bay. 
The boat collided with two Customs vessels, then ran aground on West
Featherbed Bank.  Four Bahamians and one Polish national were arrested,
and the boat and 427 pounds of marijuana were seized.  The Polish
national had paid the Bahamians to smuggle him into the U.S.

o During the night hours of April 3rd, Customs agents monitored the drop
of a cocaine courier at Cape Florida just north of the park's
boundaries.  They'd earlier seen the courier transferred from a "go-
fast" boat to a shallow draft flats boat at Soldier Key within the
park.  A Customs Blackhawk helicopter followed the flats boat and
agents eventually took the vessel and its occupants into custody; the
"go-fast" was later picked up by a Coast Guard unit.  Marijuana residue
was found in the latter with an ion scanner.  The courier, however, was
able to elude arrest.  The flats boat may be the vessel employed in a
series of outboard engine thefts in the area of the park.

o While Secretary Babbitt was fishing in the park on the morning of April
4th, Florida Marine Patrol officers advised that they were recovering
bales of marijuana from the park west of Black Ledge.  Forty bales
weighing over 1,200 pounds were recovered.  A search is continuing for
additional bales along the mangrove shoreline.  It's not known whether
the marijuana was dumped from the "go-fast" caught the previous night.

[Bonnie Foist and Steve Stinnett, CRO, BISC, 4/2 and 4/4]

97-141 - Rock Creek Park (D.C.) - Rape and Kidnapping Arrest

On Sunday, April 6th, Park Police officers arrested K.M., 18,
for the abduction and rape of a 14-year-old girl.  According to
investigators, K.M. and another male abducted the girl from a city
street, drove her to the Carter Barron Amphitheater parking area in the park,
then raped her.  The victim knew her assailant and identified him at his
residence for officers.  K.M. was arrested and is being charged with
the kidnapping and sexual assault of a minor.  The girl was treated at
Children's Hospital.  [Bill Lynch, RLES, NCR, 4/7]

97-142 - National Capital Parks Central (D.C.) - Pursuit; Citizen Injury

A 48-year-old woman jogging near the Tidal Basin on the afternoon of Friday,
April 4th, was struck and injured by a vehicle fleeing police and by a
motorcycle being driven by a pursuing Park Police officer.  The incident
began around 12:30 p.m. when a Park Police officer noticed that a driver
sitting in his vehicle in traffic had a handgun on his lap.  He refused to
pull over and sped away, with the officer in pursuit.  The vehicle struck a
parked vehicle, then hit the jogger.  A second USPP motorcycle officer who'd
joined the pursuit swerved to avoid hitting the woman and laid his motorcycle
down; the rear wheel, however, also struck the woman.  She sustained a broken
left elbow and closed head injury and is in stable condition at a local
hospital.  The vehicle being pursued fled the area.  [Bill Lynch, RLES, NCR,
4/7]

97-143 - Boston NHP (Massachusetts) - Burglary

On the morning of March 31st, park administrative employees reporting for
work noticed that an interior office door had been broken open. 
Investigating rangers Glenn Van Neil and Aimee Lowery determined that a
$3,000 laptop computer and carrying bag were the only items missing from the
office.  A portable CD-ROM drive and other electronic equipment which were in
the same area as the laptop were not taken.  It appears that entry was gained
through an unsecured exterior door the previous evening.  Several
classifiable prints were lifted from the office, and FBI assistance will be
sought in matching them to possible suspects and office employees.  The
computer's serial number has been entered into NCIC.  [Mark Vagos, CR, BOST,
4/2]

97-144 - American Memorial (Saipan) - Explosives

A USGS Biological Resources Division crew conducting wild bird surveys
discovered a fully intact, live, World War II six-inch shell in the park's
wetlands on April 1st.  The shell, which was about three feet long, was in an
isolated area of the wetlands being considered for light landscaping and
trail development.  Park staff and a crew from the Northern Mariana Islands
Emergency Management Office removed the shell without incident.  It was later
detonated in an isolated area of the island.  Live ordnance is found
periodically throughout the islands of the Northern Marianas, scene of
intense fighting during World War II.  The shell was likely fired by a ship
during the invasion of Saipan in June, 1944.  [Chuck Sayon, Unit Manager,
AMME, 4/7]

97-145 - Gateway NRA (New York/New Jersey) - Body Found

A park visitor walking his dog along the shoreline of Spermaceti Cove in the
park's Sandy Hook Unit discovered a body in the sand at the high tide line on
the morning of April 3rd.  Responding rangers secured the area and notified
local authorities.  The victim was later identified as 23-year-old R.W.,
a fisherman from Highlands, New Jersey, who'd been lost at sea when his
boat sank while he was clamming in extremely harsh weather conditions in
Sandy Hook Bay on January 7th.  During the initial search, conducted in
conjunction with the Coast Guard, rangers discovered flotsam from Wolf's boat
on the park's shoreline, but subsequent search efforts were unsuccessful. 
The medical examiner has determined that Wolf drowned.  The wreckage of his
vessel has not yet been found.  [Thomas Lobkowicz, LES, GATE, 4/6]

97-146 - Grand Canyon NP (Arizona) - Assist; Fatality

While returning from Page, Arizona, to his duty station at Lees Ferry on
March 30th, ranger Ed Cummins was the first emergency unit to arrive at a
rollover motor vehicle accident which occurred about seven miles from Lees
Ferry.  The Geo Metro, occupied by three Taiwanese nationals, left the road
and rolled several times.  Two suffered only minor injuries, but the third
was ejected through the rear window of the car and died while being
transported to a hospital in Page.  [Patrick Hattaway, SDR, River
Subdistrict, GRCA, 4/7]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No submissions.

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

EXCHANGE

No submissions. 

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Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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