OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) – Two people accused of using an airplane to smuggle drugs were arrested after their plane ran out of fuel, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing on a California highway.
Just before 2 a.m. Thursday, fire crews got a radio call that a single-engine airplane landed in the middle of the street on State Road 76 in Oceanside. Police say the pilot of the Piper Cherokee issued a distress call before making an emergency landing. There was no traffic on the ground, and neither the pilot nor his passenger was hurt.
Police say when officers approached the passenger, 36-year-old Troy Smith, he did something suspicious. He threw a backpack into the brush in which officers say they found one kilogram of suspected cocaine.
The street value of a kilo of cocaine is about $70,000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Police say Smith also had a small amount of cocaine on him. He and the pilot, 21-year-old Gabriel Breit, were arrested on charges of illegal transportation of narcotics.
Tom Fries, the registered owner of the plane, says he had been renting it out to Plus One Flyers, a local flight club, since February. He says an investigator with the Federal Aviation Administration told him the plane had run out of fuel.
Breit is listed as a certified flight instructor for Plus One Flyers on LinkedIn.
The plane was arriving when it made the emergency landing. Flights records show it took off from Mesa, Arizona, late Wednesday night.
The investigation is ongoing.
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