Welcome to this week’s edition of Leafwire’s Industry Trailblazers, where we speak with and learn from some of the industry’s true pioneers. Today we welcome a true pioneer Marty Raulins.

In August 1975, he flew a four-engine Douglas C-54 Skymaster into a clandestine 1,000-foot airstrip in Polk County, GA, (where I live) carrying what he estimates was nearly 7,000 pounds of marijuana. The abandoned DC-4 and its cargo drew half a million curious onlookers over seven months before federal agents seized it.

After auction, the plane inspired a B-movie, In Hot Pursuit: The Polk County Pot Plane, and cult-favorite footage of its perilous takeoff still circulates today. Marty spent 15 years smuggling under an “adopted family” arrangement, served nine years in federal prison, and has authored his memoir, Flying High: A Cannabis Caper.

Marty Raulins and his group landed the DC‑4 in Polk County with 7,000 pounds of cannabis on board. His smuggling career spanned 15 years, primarily flying shipments from Colombia. Marty’s story became central to the Pot Plane legend — he was contacted by Hollywood figures like Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda, featured in multiple books, and eventually served nine years in federal prison. His firsthand account offers a rare glimpse into the era of large‑scale smuggling and the cultural impact it left behind.

https://youtu.be/d9OXOredwiQ