Man rescued in Florida plane crash is accused of smuggling cocaine

Jonathan Gardiner is being charged with cocaine importation conspiracy, a federal complaint showed.

A passenger on board a plane that flew from the Bahamas and crashed off the coast of Florida was arrested in a federal drug investigation, records show.

Jonathan Gardiner is being charged with cocaine importation conspiracy, a federal complaint showed.

Gardiner was one of 11 people who survived the crash that happened on Tuesday.

The plane, a Beechcraft 300 King Air turboprop, was on its way from Marsh Harbour, on the Bahamian island of Great Abaco, to Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport when it suffered engine failure, authorities said. The pilot ditched the plane in the water about 50 miles (80 km) off Vero Beach, Florida, and managed to get its 10 passengers, three with minor injuries, onto a yellow life raft.

According to the complaint, when he was resecured, Gardiner had three phones and a cross-body bag that had about $30,000 in Bahamian currency.

The complaint said the money was labeled with the handwritten name of a Bahamian politician who was allegedly connected to a planned Bahamas-bound shipment in November 2024 involving 900 to 1,000 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia.

During a video-recorded meeting in 2024 between the Bahamian politician and a charged Colombian drug trafficker, they discussed details of shipping "a large amount" from Colombia through the Bahamas, the complaint said.

Gardiner is alleged to have been part of the drug conspiracy since at least 2023, the complaint said.

The complaint refers to Gardiner as "player."

In a 2024 indictment in Georgia mentioned in the complaint, about 14 people were charged with federal narcotics offense related to a drug trafficking organization.

The complaint describes Gardiner as a foreign supplier of cocaine for the Georgia drug traffic organization.

Sometime in February 2023, Gardiner allegedly supplied a multi-kilogram shipment of cocaine to the Georgia drug trafficking organization that was sent by him from the Bahamas to Miami, Florida, the complaint said. The shipment was then received by other members who were indicted.

Gardiner was previously convicted in 2006 and sentenced to about 18 years in prison for federal narcotics and money laundering offenses, records showed. He was deported to the Bahamas sometime in 2014.

The other 10 survivors were flown to awaiting emergency medical services at Melbourne Orlando International Airport, authorities said. All were reported to be in stable condition.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it would investigate the crash.