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Busting the occupants of a plane for smuggling cocaine was a new one for the California Highway Patrol. The two men tried to stash the coke before the cops got there but weren’t fast enough. The Piper Cherokee Pathfinder had engine trouble and when police arrived it was pulled over on the shoulder. Someone was trying to ditch a backpack in some bushes as they rolled up. Things might have gone a whole lot smoother if they had simply left the backpack where it was.
Small plane carrying coke
Gabriel Leon Breit and Troy Othneil Smith have the smuggler’s blues, caught transporting a kilo of cocaine from Arizona to California in a small plane. It developed engine trouble. 21-year-old Gabriel Breit was the pilot.
He also happens to be an instructor. His 36-year-old passenger, Troy Smith, is listed as his student. Smith was the one holding the backpack as cops arrived. Smith also had a sample in his pocket.
Police got involved when Breit called them. He gave them a jingle around 1:45 a.m. on Thursday morning, September 27.
He wanted to give them a heads up that “the Piper Cherokee Pathfinder was experiencing engine trouble and he would be landing on State Route 76 in Oceanside.” That’s near San Diego. The plane touched down safely with nobody getting injured.
Highway Patrol notes in their report that as they arrived they observed “one of the men hiding a backpack in the brush on the side of the road.” According to Oceanside Police Assistant Chief Taurino Valdovinos, “Breit, a flight instructor, and Smith, his student, were detained.”
That was because along with the plane, which they were expecting, cops “discovered a small amount of cocaine on Smith. Another kilo of cocaine was discovered in the backpack.” They weren’t expecting that. Both men “were charged with drug trafficking.”
Smuggling no surprise
Despite the unusual circumstances, the chief isn’t shocked that the men were using the plane to smuggle drugs. “It doesn’t surprise me. I think we have narcotics coming into our country in various ways, but I think the surprising part is the emergency landing and how we came across it.”
Reporters looked the tail number up on flight tracking sites and learned it “departed Oceanside on Wednesday afternoon and made a brief stop in the Phoenix area. Later that night, it was heading back to Oceanside when it was forced to land on the road.”
The owner of the Pathfinder was happy to talk to the press. He explained he “rents out the craft through a flying club called Plus One Flyers, which requires a private pilot’s license and a high performance aircraft sign-off to charter his plane.”
That’s about all he can say. He found out about the “emergency landing around 6:30 a.m.” He didn’t learn about the drug bust until he saw it on the news.
“Plus One confirmed Breit and Smith rented the plane as a flight instructor and student pilot, respectively.” As related by the unnamed owner, “you just can’t write this stuff. Unbelievable. Unbelievable that this is what people do.”
The instructor pilot’s grandfather came to the phone and told the press it “doesn’t make any sense that he would get in any trouble. He was working out his hours because for the FAA, [pilots] need at least 1,500 hours to be a commercial pilot of a jet, and he said he was going to get it by the end of this year.” He might not have known about the coke. He didn’t have any in his pocket. “He is very professional, so it doesn’t fit with his character. I have no idea what happened. I have no idea.” Oceanside PD promises they’ll figure it out. Both men are out on bail but someone on that plane has a kilo of coke to pay for.
