{"id":276259,"date":"2026-05-19T07:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T07:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276259\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T07:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T07:07:18","slug":"plane-crash-off-florida-coast-uncovers-cocaine-smuggling-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276259\/","title":{"rendered":"Plane crash off Florida coast uncovers cocaine smuggling operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla (WFLA) \u2014 One of 11 Bahamians who were rescued in a plane crash off the coast of Florida was charged after a twist reveal in the story.<\/p>\n

According to NBC News<\/a>, a federal complaint stated that Jonathan Gardiner was charged with one count of cocaine import conspiracy.<\/p>\n

82-year-old Florida woman killed after being run over in Publix parking lot: FHP <\/a><\/p>\n

Gardiner, referred to as \u201cPlayer\u201d in the federal document, was among those who were saved after a plane out of Marsh Harbor, Bahamas, crashed off the coast of Melbourne, Florida<\/a>, last Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The survivors spent five hours on a life raft with no means of calling for help when U.S. search-and-rescue crews found them, U.S. Air Force officials said.<\/p>\n

The federal complaint alleged that Gardiner had $30,000 in Bahamian currency in a brown paper bag, which was labeled with the name of a politician in the Bahamas linked to a large shipment of cocaine from Colombia.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said also had three phones on him when the plane went down.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla (WFLA) \u2014 One of 11 Bahamians who were rescued in a plane crash off the coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[117017,117016,1618,28,30,29,117012,117908,27896,3118],"class_list":["post-276259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-cocaine-import","tag-federal-complaint","tag-fla","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jonathan-gardiner","tag-marsh-harbor","tag-nbc-news","tag-plane-crash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}