Two Oceanside residents were arrested after cocaine was found on a small plane that made an emergency landing on State Route 76 early Thursday, the Oceanside Police Department said.
The pilot, 21-year-old Gabriel Leon Breit, and the passenger, 36-year-old Troy Othneil Smith, were arrested on suspicion of illegal narcotic transportation.
Officers first responded to a call from the pilot around 1:43 a.m. that a plane was experiencing an engine malfunction and had to make an emergency landing on SR-76 near Canyon Drive, according to a police statement.
The plane's two occupants were not injured. While officers searched the plane, they spotted one of the individuals discarding a backpack into a nearby brush, OPD Assistant Chief Taurino Valdovinos said at a news conference.
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The individuals were detained. During a search, officers found a small amount of cocaine on one of the passengers, Valdovinos said. Officers then found one kilo of suspected cocaine in the backpack.
“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," Valdovinos said.
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No other drugs were found on the plane, according to OPD.
The plane was coming from Phoenix, Arizona, Valdovinos said.
Business records show it was owned by Leadturn LLC. The owner told NBC 7 he rents out his plane through a flying club called Plus One Flyers, which requires a private pilot's license and a high performance aircraft sign-off in order to rent his plane specifically.
Plus One declined to comment while the investigation is ongoing but did confirm Breit and Smith rented the plane as a flight instructor and student pilot, respectively.
The owner said he didn't know the renters who were arrested Thursday. He wasn't aware of an issue until he was notified by the FAA around 6:30 a.m. and didn't know about the drug charges until he saw it on the news, he said.
"You just can’t write this stuff," the owner said. "Unbelievable. Unbelievable that this is what people do."
The plane was on the North County highway for nearly half a day for the investigation, which has been taken over by the North County Narcotics Task Force. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the circumstances of the emergency landing.
The plane was towed off of the freeway around 11 a.m. and transported to the Oceanside Municipal Airport.
Breit and Smith were both released on bail at around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego division confirmed to NBC 7 that it is working with the Oceanside Police Department in this case and that it served a search Thursday morning. Due to the ongoing investigation, the DEA San Diego could not provide more details.
