A small plane crashed off the coast of northern Colombia on Wednesday, and 1.2 metric tons of cocaine was recovered from the wreckage, along with the body of the pilot with a Mexican passport.
Colombian coast guards found the contraband in one-kilogram packages from the wreckage of the Hawker 800 aircraft, according to The Huffington Post.
The Colombian Air Force dispatched fighter jets to intercept the plane when it entered Colombian airspace, but the pilot of the plane ignored an order to land, Colombian officials said.
They added that the plane tried to evade the fighter jets, but its engine apparently failed, causing it to crash into the sea off the coast of Puerto Colombia, Fox News reported.
"The airplane, a Hawker 600, which left Venezuela and was destined for Central America, was detected in the early hours of today when it illegally entered Colombian air space," a statement from the Colombian Air Force said, according to Reuters.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said the plane came from Central America and not from his country.
Padrino said the plane landed in a remote part of Venezuela for a few hours, and his country's air force shot at the plane when it took off again, The Huffington Post reported.
The Venezuelan Air Force then alerted their Colombian counterparts about the plane, and a pursuit ensued.
The incident came as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigates Venezuela's top lawmaker, Diosdado Cabello, for drug trafficking and money laundering.
Cabello appeared on Venezuelan television on Tuesday daring the U.S. to show evidence that he is into drug trafficking, The New York Times reported.
American officials had claimed that Venezuela's military connive with drug traffickers and insurgents in smuggling drugs to the U.S. and Europe. Small planes are used to carry the drugs and take off from hidden airstrips in the western Venezuelan state of Apure.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime also found Colombia to be a major cocaine source with 300 tons of annual production, Reuters reported.
Rebels and criminal gangs smuggle the drugs through Venezuela, Central America and Mexico and across the Caribbean and Atlantic oceans.
