Passenger in California plane emergency landing faces federal drug charge, was under investigation

The passenger of a plane that was transporting cocaine when it made an emergency landing last month on an Oceanside highway was under federal investigation at the time and was charged Tuesday in San Diego federal court with a drug offense related to the plane incident, federal prosecutors said.

Troy Othneil Smith, a 36-year-old Oceanside resident, was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, according to prosecutors and a criminal complaint. The charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine up to $1 million.

It was not immediately clear if Smith had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that Smith was carrying a large wad of cash and a small vial of suspected cocaine in his pocket when police arrived after the single-engine Piper Cherokee he was riding in landed about 1:45 a.m. Sept. 26 on state Route 76 near Canyon Drive. Prosecutors also said Smith was carrying a heat-sealed, air-tight brick of suspected cocaine in a backpack and tried to hide the drugs in bushes next to the roadway.

Oceanside police arrested Smith and pilot Gabriel Breit, 21, on suspicion of state drug charges at the site of the landing, police said.

The criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday revealed that Smith had been under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Postal Inspection Service since last summer for allegedly mailing a total of more than 2.6 pounds of cocaine to North Carolina in several shipments.

Postal inspectors in North Carolina alerted their San Diego counterparts in June 2023 that packages of drugs were arriving in their state from post offices across North County, according to a probable cause statement authored by a DEA special agent. Investigators used surveillance footage from the North County post offices and other leads to identify Smith as the person allegedly mailing the parcels.

The complaint alleges that on three occasions in October 2023, the North Carolina postal inspectors obtained warrants to search packages containing cocaine that Smith had allegedly sent to addresses in Wilmington and Durham. Smith allegedly sent one package from a Carlsbad post office and two from a Vista post office. Earlier this year, he allegedly sent another package containing cocaine to North Carolina from a Fallbrook post office.

Last month, after the plane made its emergency landing, Oceanside police said they noticed Smith pacing back and forth while carrying his backpack, according to the complaint. The officers alleged that when Smith believed no one was watching, he tried to unzip the backpack and hide the brick of cocaine, which weighed about 2.2 pounds.

Officers searched the aircraft but did not find any additional drugs.

The complaint also details where the plane traveled before the highway landing and what likely caused the emergency. Authorities said the privately owned plane had left San Diego on the morning of Sept. 25 and landed in Mesa, Ariz., that evening. The plane then departed around 11 p.m. from Mesa and started experiencing mechanical issues when it arrived in San Diego County airspace.

“The pilot and passenger were planning an ocean landing because the airplane seemed to shut-off and was malfunctioning,” the complaint states. “They were able to turn the airplane around over the ocean as the airplane and engine began working again. After a short time, the engine shut off a second time, which resulted in the pilot landing the plane on Highway 76.”

A mechanic who inspected the aircraft observed that it likely malfunctioned because it ran out of fuel, even though it had one full fuel tank and one empty tank, according to the complaint. But the fuel gauge selector was set to the empty tank instead of the full tank.