Retired Marine Corps officer caught with cocaine after Oceanside plane emergency sent to prison

Troy Smith admitted he had a brick of cocaine with him last year when he and his flight instructor, who was unaware of the drugs, made an emergency landing on state Route 76

A retired Marine Corps captain, who was caught with a kilogram brick of cocaine last year when the small plane he was learning to fly made an emergency landing on an Oceanside highway, was sentenced Wednesday in San Diego federal court to two years and six months in federal prison.

Troy Othneil Smith, 36, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, admitting he had also mailed a package of cocaine across the country in 2023.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lyndzie Carter told U.S. District Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro on Wednesday that the 21-year-old flight instructor who made the emergency landing with Smith on Sept. 26 on state Route 76 was not knowingly involved in transporting drugs, despite his initial arrest. Carter said she questioned Gabriel Breit for three hours and determined he was unaware that Smith, his student, was carrying drugs in a backpack as the pair flew from Arizona to Oceanside.

Breit, a certified commercial pilot and flight instructor, lost his license for several months and had to fight to get it restored, Carter told the judge. “This derailed this young man’s career,” she said.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/05/21/retired-marine-corps-officer-caught-with-cocaine-after-oceanside-plane-emergency-sent-to-prison/