The death of Timothy James Clark, a 46-year-old Australian pilot with ties to Stellenbosch’s flying community, has revealed the scale of an international cocaine operation worth billions.
Who was Timothy James Clark?
According to City Press, Clark was well known at Stellenbosch airfield, often described as relaxed, approachable, and fond of joking with other weekend aviators.
He regularly flew his Sling 4 aircraft into the Western Cape and visited the Sling factory in Alberton for maintenance. On the surface, he looked like a casual aviation hobbyist.
But Clark’s final flight told another story. His plane crashed in a sugar cane field near Couripe, on Brazil’s Alagoas coast, carrying 200 kilograms of cocaine. Authorities estimated the cargo’s value at R920 million.
Brazilian police had been tracking his movements for months, noting how he flew low, often without a transponder, to avoid detection.
They believe the flight was another run to move drugs from Brazil to Africa, with South Africa one of the key destinations.
How the operation worked
Investigators found that Clark had modified his Sling aircraft to carry extra cargo and fuel.
Three of the four seats were removed and replaced with long-range tanks, installed in Alberton, so that the plane could fly across the Atlantic without stopping.
Each trip from Brazil to Africa took about 40 hours. Aviation insiders estimate Clark may have completed as many as 30 such journeys, potentially earning more than R250 million.
Clark’s cocaine consignments were sometimes wrapped in unusual packaging. The bricks found in the wreckage were labelled with fake SpaceX logos, a tactic smugglers use to disguise their product.
Records show Clark registered the Sling aircraft under a company called Mindframe Creations with the South African Civil Aviation Authority.
The listed director, Raza Muhammad, is now unreachable. Investigators say Clark also used a Beechcraft King Air 350, registered in Malawi, for flights that appeared to be legitimate.
Double life exposed
While he quietly moved drugs across continents, Clark maintained an image of glamour on social media.
He posted photos of himself wearing tuxedos, attending private clubs, and mingling in hotspots from Cape Town to Bali. Friends, however, described him differently: an unassuming man with messy hair and old clothes, who sometimes splurged only on expensive shoes.
In his home country of Australia, Clark held positions in several companies, including Stock Assist Group Pty Ltd and Gurney Capital Nominees Pty Ltd, while others had been deregistered.
Experts say his activities point to South Africa’s growing role in the global cocaine trade. Julian Rademeyer from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime said:
“Saldanha has more recently also increasingly become the turf of gang violence, which is usually an indication of more drugs in the area.”
Clark’s plane was sighted not only in South Africa but also in Namibia and reportedly Mozambique, both long recognised as cocaine transit routes.
For each successful trip, Clark is said to have earned about R8.6 million. But after years of slipping past authorities, his cocaine empire came to a sudden halt with the crash in Brazil.
Police moved in only after the wreckage exposed the scale of his operation.
Behind the messy hair and casual manner, the Stellenbosch pilot was running a billion-rand trafficking business — until it ended in a cane field on the other side of the world.