A Hawker 800, a mid-size business jet , was stolen from a Mexican airport, and it later crashed in Guatemala while allegedly attempting to land in a clandestine runway .
The Guatemalan Army told EL UNIVERSAL that the jet crashed in Santa Marta Salinas, Chisec, on Tuesday.
Colonel Juan Carlos de Paz, a spokesperson for the Guatemalan Army, said the army found two dead bodies, weapons, and drugs at the site.
Sources said the Hawker 800 took off, without permission, from the Cuernavaca airport.
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The criminals were on their way to Venezuela to pick up a cocaine shipment, but the plane crashed in Guatemala on its way back to Mexico. Authorities said the amount of cocaine the airplane was transporting is unknown.
Colonel De Paz told EL UNIVERSAL that agents from Guatemala’s Attorney General’s Office arrived at the site of the crash to launch an investigation.
According to the Guatemalan official, the airplane left Mexico on Tuesday and landed at the Zulia International Airport in Venezuela at 4 p.m. The jet took off almost two hours later and crashed when the men attempted to land in Guatemala.
Two men stole the plane in Mexico
The Morelos government confirmed a jet was stolen from the Mariano Matamoros Airport. The two men took off without a flight schedule or permit.
International Corporate & Cargo Services was in charge of the plane since August 10. Authorities are currently looking for the owner so that they can file a formal complaint.
Later, Morelos official Pablo Ojeda Cárdenas said the two men who stole the plane claimed to be mechanics and said they were going to test the engines, and instead, they took off.
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Cárdenas said the Attorney General’s Office would investigate the incident.
After the theft, the Morelos government will meet with airport authorities, the National Guard, and the Defense Ministry to implement harsher security measures.
According to the security records, three men arrived at the airport . Once they arrived at the hangar, Marcos Ramírez Espinosa, the head of operations at International Corporate & Cargo Services, allowed them in.
Days after the jet crashed in Guatemala, the Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation. Workers at the private hangar testified before authorities.
Authorities haven’t been able to locate the jet’s owner, who has also yet to file a lawsuit over the theft.
Moreover, authorities indicated a group of transporters carried out a demonstration outside the airport, at the same time when the theft took place. Sources argue the protest was orchestrated to distract authorities while the criminals stole the plane.
Later, Guatemalan authorities found two bodies near the site of the plane crash. Allegedly, one of them was a Guatemalan drug trafficker who was on the run.
The local press reported authorities identified Jeankarlo Alexánder Sánchez Meneses using his fingerprints.
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