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February 8, 2005

 

Beer-smuggling ex-prof. touted as "Real-Life Indiana Jones"

Former UAF economics professor and ex-Fairbanks North Star Borough Assemblyman Bob Logan was featured in the National Enquirer last week under the headline, "Real-life Indiana Jones: College Professor by Day, Bootlegging Pilot by Night."

Logan lost his $100,000-a-year teaching job, his $70,000 plane, and was sentenced to one year under house arrest after he sold 60 bottles of booze and six and one half ounces of marijuana to an undercover agent in September 2003.

"This is a guy straight out of Indiana Jones," said Logan's attorney Bill Satterberg in the Enquirer article. Satterberg also explained for the Enquirer how drinking is a serious problem in Alaska villages, and that Barrow is what is referred to as a "damp" community, meaning residents are allowed only a certain amount of alcohol. Once they reach the quota, the only way to get alcohol is on the black market from smugglers like Logan.

"I wasn't doing it for the money," claimed Logan in the article. "I was doing it for the excitement. I like to live on the edge."

"To make sure they couldn't follow me I sneaked through mountain passes," Logan told the Enquirer, "and once I was clear of them I flew close to the ground to make sure I wasn't spotted on radar. There were times when I was flying just three feet above the ground."

Logan conducted the interview from his log cabin home near Fairbanks where he is currently under house arrest. To fulfill 60 hours community service as part of his sentencing, Logan was also asked to write an economics paper on the affects of fetal alcohol syndrome on rural villages.

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