GEORGIA — A man accused of trafficking drugs into Georgia was in federal court on Friday after surviving a plane crash.
Jonathan Gardiner was caught and arrested after he and 10 others were pulled out of the ocean by the U.S. Coast Guard after a small plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean between Florida and the Bahamas.
He now faces a charge of cocaine importation conspiracy.
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According to court documents obtained by Channel 2 Action News Gardiner is an alleged drug trafficker based in the Bahamas. He is accused of moving ton-quantities of cocaine from Colombia, into the Bahamas and ultimately to the U.S.
The documents from federal court, in 2023, Gardiner shipped several kilograms of cocaine to a Georgia drug trafficking organization.
When he was pulled from the water, court documents say he had three cell phones and $30,000 Bahamian dollars in an envelope with the name of a Bahamian politician suspected of being connected to a drug trafficking organization.
Gardiner remains in federal custody.
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