ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico authorities have turned to Arizona for help in figuring out who was flying a plane that crashed recently into a northern New Mexico lake, leaving scattered debris, human remains and bundles of pure cocaine floating in the water.
The general manager of the Prescott, Ariz., airport, Ben Vardiman, said New Mexico State Police called Tuesday seeking information on the plane. He said the aircraft was based at his field, but he had no information on the owner or who was flying it when it crashed Sunday.
Prescott Police Lt. Andy Reinhardt said the plane was one of five stored in a subleased hangar, all of them registered to a man in Caldwell, Idaho. He would not give the man’s name.
New Mexico State Police Lt. Eric Garcia would not comment Wednesday on any investigation in Arizona.
Garcia said officials have “strong leads” about who was on the plane when it crashed into Heron Lake.
“We have substantial information that came up, but we’re not releasing some of it because that’s what might help identify who was aboard,” he said.
Investigators have refused to say whether they believe anyone besides the pilot was aboard the plane, which the FAA has identified in a preliminary report posted on its website as a twin-engine Cessna 320. Garcia said he did not know when any identification might be released.
Lawsuit over fish pedicures heads to Arizona court
PHOENIX — The Arizona Court of Appeals plans to hear arguments Wednesday on a civil lawsuit involving a Gilbert spa owner whose clients paid to have fish eat dead skin off their feet.
The case was filed by the Goldwater Institute on behalf of spa owner Cindy Vong.
A lower court dismissed the suit.
The Arizona Republic reports the Arizona Board of Cosmetology threatened to pull Vong’s license in early 2009 if she didn’t stop offering the pedicure service. The board alleged the fish were unsafe because they could not be sterilized.
Vong says the board’s ruling hurt her financially.
The Institute sued in December 2009, alleging the board lacked jurisdiction over the practice because it was not a cosmetic service and that it violated Vong’s right to run her business.
Renegade warlord killed in Ivory Coast
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — State television said renegade warlord Ibrahim “IB” Coulibaly, a two-time coup plotter who began the pro-democracy battle for Abidjan, was killed in fighting Wednesday night with one-time allies turned enemy.
He died after his top aide said Coulibaly’s troops were waiting for U.N. peacekeepers to disarm them.
A commander for Defense Minister Guillaume Soro said Coulibaly appeared to have killed himself rather than surrender when his troops seized Coulibaly’s stronghold in Abidjan’s poor neighborhood of Abobo on Wednesday night.
The senior commander spoke on condition of anonymity and it was not possible to get details late Wednesday of how exactly Coulibaly, 47, died.
“Chief Sergeant Ibrahim Coulibaly has been killed this evening during fighting with the FRCI” Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, state television announced in a late-night headline running at the bottom of the TV screen.
But the senior commander who directed the fighting against Coulibaly said it appeared to be a suicide.
“Our men surrounded his residence but he refused to surrender,” said the commander who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to reporters. “When our fighters got access, they found his body, lifeless but with no bullet wound.”