In an Aug. 3, 2011 photo, Chief Investigator Marc Martin, right, holds a bag of methamphetamine worth approximately $10,000 as he talks with investigator Jody Cavangaugh, left, at the Warren County Sheriff's office in McMinnville, Tenn. The federal governments budget crisis has forced a sudden retreat in the nations war against methamphetamine, wiping out millions of dollars to clean up secret labs and forcing some police and sheriffs departments to all but abandon the hunt for new meth producers because they cannot afford it. (AP Photo/Josh Anderson)
Federal drug agents believe Santa Rosa was at the center of an effort to smuggle methamphetamine to Australia. They announced yesterday the discovery earlier this month of 560-pounds or 200-million-dollars worth of the drug stashed in an unidentified Santa Rosa storage facility. Three Australian men were formally charged in the scheme in Melbourne yesterday. They believe one of the suspects, identified as 72-year-old Hugh Gorman, intended to fly the crystal meth in a single-engine Cessna across the ocean, but the plot literally never got off the ground because Gorman was a terrible pilot and failed to learn to fly the plane he bought from Propjet Aviation, based at the Sonoma County Airport.