2 Held in Discovery of Cocaine on Plane
Two Woodland Hills men were arrested in New Mexico by U.S. Customs Service agents who found more than $13 million in cocaine aboard their airplane after it made a forced landing, authorities said Saturday.
Clarence Kleinshans, Jr., 53, and George Melvin Stephens, 27, were being held in federal custody in Albuquerque, N.M., after their arrests Thursday night, said customs spokesman Charles Conroy.
Customs agents had been investigating the two men for several weeks, Conroy said, and tracked Kleinshans’ single-engine 1979 Aero Commander as it flew from California to Florida.
On the return trip, the plane began losing oil pressure and was forced to land at an airstrip in Roswell, N.M., where agents found 48 pounds of cocaine inside, Conroy said.
Kleinshans is a professional pilot and Stephens is the owner of an insurance agency.
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