{"id":144510,"date":"2025-09-15T08:26:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/144510\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T08:26:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:26:03","slug":"aussie-pilot-found-dead-after-plane-ditches-carrying-200kg-of-spacex-branded-cocaine-in-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/144510\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie pilot found dead after plane ditches carrying 200kg of SpaceX-branded cocaine in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Authorities have confirmed a pilot found dead after flying a plane that crashed carrying 200kg of SpaceX-branded cocaine, is Australian.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Police in Brazil discovered the wreckage of the light plane in a sugarcane field in Coruripe, on the coast of the Alagoas region, and confirmed the body of the dead pilot found nearby is that of 46-year-old Timothy J Clark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr Clark, who was carrying identification confirming his nationality, was flying the plane when it crashed at around 1.30pm on Sunday, in a renowned international drug route, according to local media outlet <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gazetanews.com\/\">Gazeta<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\/privacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/e32b2a114d4e05b14eb6be35227f209384afe6ee.jpg\" alt=\"Timothy J. Clark\u2019s ID found at the scene\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Timothy J. Clark\u2019s ID found at the scene Credit: Brazil Police<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The plane is registered in the African nation of Zambia, but is believed to have been hangared in Brazil for the last two years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">No details of the journey had been logged with Brazilian authorities, and the destination of the flight remains a mystery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Images supplied by police show the cocaine was packaged into bricks, with each one individually wrapped using the readily identifiable SpaceX branding of Elon Musk\u2019s spacecraft and rocket division. The substance was tested and confirmed to contain cocaine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The monster haul is estimated to be worth around $80 million had the drugs hit the streets in Australia, which has some of the highest prices in the world for the illicit drug.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Brazil plays a major role in the world\u2019s drug cocaine distribution and although only small amounts of the drug are produced in Brazil, the country plays a big role in global drug distribution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">A 2016 report by the United Nations found that Brazil was the most frequently cited departure point of cocaine arriving in African, Asian and European markets after Colombia, the <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-15098541\/Aussie-pilot-cocaine-brazil-plane-crash.html\">Daily Mail<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">This is largely due to Brazil\u2019s neighbours &#8211; Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia, with loosely monitored borders. and the nation is also the world\u2019s second-largest consumer of cocaine (after the US) because the drug is so cheap &#8211; as little as $5 a gram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities have confirmed a pilot found dead after flying a plane that crashed carrying 200kg of SpaceX-branded cocaine,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2942,63,43,44,1158,41,39,42,40,1720],"class_list":["post-144510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-americas","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-police","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}