Today in VT history: huge VT-run drug smuggling ring caught 6%

By Guy Page0%

7/30/2026, 7:57:52 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 2 faulty reasoning types, including Anchoring Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 22.8% saturation with 45 hits. Analysis detected 80 faulty-reasoning hits from 197 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 20.3% and a BS Rank of 6% (21,195 of 22,405 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 94.60% of the article peer group.

Billy Greer (left) and Steve Hutchins, WCAX photo 
By VDC staff 
Thirty-five years ago today, on July 30, 1991, one of the biggest international drug smuggling operations ever linked to Vermont literally came apart in the water. 
According to a WCAX news report, whale researchers on the St. 
Lawrence River in Canada spotted something unusual: hundreds of barrels floating downstream. 
What they found inside stunned investigators. 
The barrels contained 54 tons of hashish from Pakistan, with an estimated street value of more than $600 million. 
Authorities said the shipment was headed for the United States. 
Investigators traced the operation to two Vermonters, Billy Greer and Steve Hutchins, who prosecutors said had been running a sophisticated smuggling network for more than a decade. 
According to authorities, rough weather disrupted the transfer, forcing the smugglers to dump the cargo into the river and flee. 
Instead of quietly slipping across the border, the shipment became impossible to hide. 
The discovery led to what was, at the time, the largest drug seizure in Canadian history. 
Greer, Hutchins, eight other Americans, and 15 Canadians were eventually arrested in connection with the operation. 
Confirmation Bias
0%
Anchoring Bias
17.8%
Availability Heuristic
0%
Representativeness Heuristic
0%
Hindsight Bias
0%
Overconfidence Bias
0%
Framing Effect
0%
Loss Aversion
0%
Status Quo Bias
0%
Sunk Cost Effect
0%
Optimism Bias
0%
Pessimism Bias
0%
Negativity Bias
22.8%
Self-Serving Bias
0%
Fundamental Attribution Error
0%
Actor-Observer Bias
0%
In-Group Bias
0%
Out-Group Homogeneity Bias
0%
Halo Effect
0%
Horn Effect
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Dunning-Kruger Effect
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Recency Bias
0%
Primacy Effect
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Blind-Spot Bias
0%
Ad Hominem
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Straw Man
0%
Appeal to Authority
0%
False Dilemma
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Slippery Slope
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Circular Reasoning
0%
Hasty Generalization
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Red Herring
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Bandwagon
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Appeal to Emotion
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Begging the Question
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Post Hoc (False Cause)
0%
Tu Quoque
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Burden of Proof
0%
Appeal to Nature
0%
Composition/Division
0%
Anecdotal
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No True Scotsman
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Ambiguity (Equivocation)
0%
Gambler’s Fallacy
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Middle Ground
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Personal Incredulity
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Special Pleading
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Genetic Fallacy
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Unattributed Quote
0%
Quote-first Misdirection
0%
Biased Writer Voice
0%
Indoctrination
0%
Politically Left Leaning Bias
0%
Politically Right Leaning Bias
0%
Attempt to Sell a Product or Service
0%

197 words analyzed.

Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.