Australian Cocaine Pilot Killed in Brazil Airplane Crash Linked to Kinahan Drug Cartel

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An Australian pilot who just lately died when his small airplane crashed in South America throughout a failed drug run has hyperlinks to an alleged Kinahan cartel affiliate who’s dealing with costs over the importation of a multimillion greenback cocaine cargo to Western Australia.

The physique of former Melbourne stockbroker Timothy James Clark was reportedly discovered on the wreckage of his single-engine Sling 4 in Brazil’s north-east on September 14, together with about 200kg of cocaine.

Native media stated stated Clark was the only real occupant of the plane, which had been fitted with extra gasoline tanks and appeared to have its transponder turned off.

Melbourne newspaper The Age reported on Thursday that Clark’s failed mission in South America was not his “first rodeo” and quoted a confidential supply who alleged that the 46-year-old had been concerned in a drug smuggling operation in Western Australia final 12 months.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged German businessman Oliver Andreas Herrmann and Melbourne man Hamish Falconer with trafficking a industrial amount of a managed drug in December after a search of their lodge rooms uncovered 200kg of cocaine, packed in suitcases in single one-kilogram blocks, together with night time imaginative and prescient goggles, aviation tools and a {hardware} cryptocurrency pockets.

Herrmann had allegedly met a “small plane” on the distant Overlander Airstrip the day earlier than his arrest. The AFP has not disclosed the make and mannequin of the plane however stated it had not seized an plane as a part of its investigation.

Investigators estimated the road worth of the medicine to be AUD $65 million and stated an “organised crime syndicate” was possible accountable for the scheme.

In March, Bellingcat printed an open supply evaluation of Herrmann’s on-line footprint and traced the champion marathon runner and worldwide businessman to places related to the US-sanctioned Kinahan Organised Crime Group.

It adopted reporting by our publishing accomplice The Sunday Occasions, which revealed that Herrmann had “shut monetary ties” to Christy Kinahan, the 68-year-old founding father of the eponymous worldwide drug cartel. Herrmann had no beforehand identified hyperlinks to organised crime. 

Bellingcat has now uncovered proof linking alleged Kinahan cartel affiliate Herrmann to Timothy Clark, the Australian who was killed when his airplane crashed in Brazil two weeks in the past.  

Utilizing on-line instruments that consolidate publicly out there info and reverse picture searches, Bellingcat discovered greater than a dozen accounts registered to Clark throughout social media platforms, journey web sites and evaluate platforms.

This open supply evaluate reveals that the Australian pilot – who used the moniker “The Dealer” on X and Instagram – documented his travels to greater than 20 international locations throughout Africa, South America, Europe and Asia over the previous decade.

Clark incessantly used Tripadvisor to publish opinions, together with about chartering a catamaran in Bali and the VIP service at a Saint-Tropez bar the place he spent €5,500 on “extremely topshelf” drinks.

Clark was additionally an affiliate of Oliver Herrmann; the German businessman’s Fb profile reveals he was “pals” with the Australian pilot. And a 2018 restaurant evaluate posted by Clark included a photograph that reveals the pair eating collectively within the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. 

The filename of the picture is dated March 2, the identical day that Herrmann logged a run in Harare on the health app, Strava. In the identical week, Clark posted a evaluate for a Harare bar near the place Herrmann recorded one other GPS-tracked run on the identical day.    

Herrmann, an acclaimed runner who gained the 2016 Munich Marathon, logged greater than 2,500 actions throughout dozens of nations on Strava between 2013 and 2023. His use of the health app supplied an in depth overview of his travels throughout that interval. 

Company information present Herrmann has been concerned at senior ranges with corporations lively within the fields of fintech, mining and consulting.

Like Christy Kinahan, Clark had an lively Google Maps profile the place he posted opinions, photographs and rankings. His profile used the alias “John Smithe”, however Clark is pictured in one of many pictures posted by the account and his actual title is utilized in a reply from one of many venues, confirming it belongs to him.

Clark additionally left Tripadvisor opinions for 2 Zimbabwean venues – the Amanzi Lodge and Thetford Property – which Christy Kinahan later attended, in keeping with the cartel chief’s personal Google Maps profile.

Clark, who lived in South Africa earlier than his dying, was additionally simply one in every of eight X followers of Adam Wooden, a identified affiliate of Christy Kinahan in Africa.

South African information outlet Metropolis Press reported final week that Clark additionally operated a second plane for “reputable” flights, a Beechcraft King Air 350 with Malawi registration quantity 7Q-YAO.

Bellingcat beforehand revealed that this plane was bought within the US by an Indonesian firm linked to Oliver Herrmann’s accomplice. It was then flown to Southern Africa by a ferry pilot who had additionally piloted a Pilatus PC-12 beforehand related to a Kinahan-linked firm.

Clark posted a Google evaluate for a enterprise at Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg on the identical day in April 2024 that the Beechcraft King Air 350 landed there, in keeping with monitoring knowledge from ADS-B Trade.

The Sunday Occasions experiences right this moment that the Sling 4 kit-plane piloted by Clark had been closely modified for transatlantic flights. A supply informed the newspaper that Clark changed the engine at the least as soon as in Brazil, indicating he was constantly flying it long-haul, and will have fitted a 3rd engine as a result of variety of flying hours he was accumulating. 

Clark’s airplane crashed about an 11-hour flight from the Amazon basin, a area that has change into a main trafficking route for cocaine certain for Europe, the drug’s fastest-expanding market. 

Tonnes of the drug flow from neighbouring Peru and Colombia, shifting by means of the Amazon earlier than being shipped to Europe and Africa.

The Sunday Occasions stated Clark and Herrmann’s alleged actions recommended the Kinahan cartel had opened new smuggling routes for smaller shipments following a succession of seizures of cocaine consignments by police forces throughout Europe. 

Oliver Herrmann, who has no identified convictions, has not but entered a plea. His case is listed for a committal point out in Perth Magistrates Court docket on October 10.

Peter Barth, Connor Plunkett, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this text.

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