Pages past - Dec. 1

On this date ...

1976: Local law officers had made two major drug busts, confiscating more than 380 pounds of marijuana.

In Clovis, three men were arrested and narcotics agents found more than 278 pounds of marijuana at a motel on East Mabry Drive.

Officials also recovered an estimated $15,000 in cash and a pistol.

The Clovis News-Journal reported it was the largest pot bust in Curry County history.

In an apparently unrelated incident, a Portales man had been arrested on the highway near Elida with 107 pounds of marijuana.

1971: Tucumcari District Attorney Vic Breen was shot to death on his way to court.

The prosecutor's killer was a recently released mental patient who was waiting outside Breen's home with a high-powered rifle.

Jose Rosendo Garcia was returned to a state mental hospital after the shooting. A court declared him mentally incompetent to stand trial for the slaying.

Breen had been a prosecutor 20 years. He was 54.

Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at:

http://www.highplainsyesterdays.com