Suspected drug flight lands on highway in southern Mexico
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A small plane suspected of carrying drugs landed on a highway Sunday in the southern Mexico state of Quintana Roo and burned.
Video posted by the top Quintana Roo state police official showed smoke billowing from the jet as it sat on a rural two-lane highway.
The Defense Department said the plane had arrived from South America and had been tracked since it entered Mexican airspace.
The Department said two air force planes were dispatched to trail the jet and troops were flown to the landing site.
Further down the highway, headed toward the neighboring state of Yucatan, troops found a pickup truck loaded with 13 sacks of cocaine weighing a total of about 850 pounds (390 kilograms). No arrests were made.
It was unclear whether the plane made an emergency landing and burst into flames, or whether traffickers set if afire as they often do.
The website Aviation Safety Network identified the plane as a decades-old BAe-125 15-seat passenger jet.
The site where the plane landed is in the state's southern interior, near Felipe Carrillo Puerto, relatively far from the state's tourists resorts.
