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Smokey Bear arrested for pot possession

Smokey "The" Bear, 53, icon of campfire safety and hero to children since 1950, has been indicted for possession of marijuana.

Investigators would not specify as to the amounts found on Bear, but stated that the amounts could likely be classified as for "personal use." The arrest concludes a month-long investigation into Smokey Bear's possible involvement in a growing operation near his home in New Mexico. The reported growing operation was not discovered, but drug paraphenalia was found during a search of Bear's cabin.

Probably the most famous bear in the history of the United States, Smokey Bear was a New Mexico black bear cub found alive in a tree after a massive forest fire in the Lincoln National Forest near Capitan, NM. In 1950, the U.S. Forest Service and the Advertising Council utilized Smokey as the symbol for fire prevention campaigns conducted all over the country.

Bear's arrest has rocked the USFS who is already reeling from the arrest of Terry Barton, a Forest Service worker, Sunday in connection with the fire that has charred more than 100,000 acres south of Denver.