By VDC staff

Thirty-five years ago today, on July 30, 1991, one of the biggest international drug smuggling operations ever linked to Vermont literally came apart in the water.

According to a WCAX news report, whale researchers on the St. Lawrence River in Canada spotted something unusual: hundreds of barrels floating downstream. What they found inside stunned investigators. The barrels contained 54 tons of hashish from Pakistan, with an estimated street value of more than $600 million.

Authorities said the shipment was headed for the United States.

Investigators traced the operation to two Vermonters, Billy Greer and Steve Hutchins, who prosecutors said had been running a sophisticated smuggling network for more than a decade. According to authorities, rough weather disrupted the transfer, forcing the smugglers to dump the cargo into the river and flee.

Instead of quietly slipping across the border, the shipment became impossible to hide.

The discovery led to what was, at the time, the largest drug seizure in Canadian history. Greer, Hutchins, eight other Americans, and 15 Canadians were eventually arrested in connection with the operation.