Narco-Plane Crash Lands in Mexico

Published: 06 July 2020

An aircraft crash landed in southeast Mexico having just been used to transport 400kg of coke into the country (Photo: Alberto Capella)

An aircraft crash landed in southeast Mexico having just been used to transport 400kg of coke into the country (Photo: Alberto Capella)

By Will Neal

Footage uploaded to social media shows the dramatic aftermath of a crash-landing in Mexico, shortly after the plane had been used to smuggle almost 400 kilograms of cocaine into the country.

 

Alberto Capella, Chief of Police for Quintana Roo, on Sunday posted two videos on Twitter showing the blazing remains of the aircraft on a road outside the small town of Polyuc in the northeast of the state.

The footage shows black smoke billowing from the centre of the plane, with the tail and engines separated from the body of the aircraft.

In a statement released later that day, the Ministry of National Defence said that the army had detected an illicit aircraft entering Mexican airspace that morning from the south. The military then deployed planes to intercept the aircraft, and sent in troops for ground support.

By the time the aircraft was located it had already landed and caught fire. Soldiers stationed around 20 kilometers to the north of the crash site soon afterwards stopped a truck carrying almost 400 kilograms of cocaine believed to have been unloaded from the downed plane.

The ministry put the street value of the shipment at approximately 109 million pesos (US$4.9 million), but declined to add whether the pilot or the driver of the truck had been detained.