A pair of Oceanside, California, men were arrested after they landed a plane full of cocaine on a state highway.
Gabriel Leon Breit, 21, and Troy Othneil Smith, 36, are accused of using a single-engine plane to transport a large amount of narcotics, the Oceanside Police Department said.
The pair have been jailed on suspicion of conspiracy and transporting controlled substances and are being held on $20,000 bail, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
At around 1:43 a.m. Thursday, the plane made an emergency landing on California State Route 76, with the pilot reporting engine trouble, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and police.
No one was injured on the ground or on the plane, but when police searched the plane, they found drugs.
Police “observed one of the individuals discard a backpack into the nearby brush. … During the investigation, a small amount of cocaine was located on the passenger of the plane, and then the subsequent investigation into that revealed approximately one kilo of suspected cocaine in the backpack that was discarded,” OPD Assistant Police Chief Taurino Valdovinos said at a press conference.
The pilot was Mr. Breit. Mr. Smith was the passenger, according to police.
Photos of the plane that police uploaded to social media show its registration number as N1711T. According to the FAA registry, the plane is owned by Leadturn LLC, based in San Diego.
The plane left Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona, at 11:09 p.m. Wednesday. It was headed to Bob Maxwell Memorial Field, the municipal airport in Oceanside, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
The owner of the plane, who did not provide a name, told KNSD-TV in San Diego that he rents out the plane via the Plus One Flyers flying club.
Plus One confirmed to the news station that the plane was rented out to Mr. Breit and Mr. Smith, who told them they were a flight instructor and a prospective pilot.
“You just can’t write this stuff. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. That this is what people do,” the plane’s owner said.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.