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Insert: Timothy Clark. Main: The wreckage of Clark’s plane. Source: Facebook, TV Pajuçara / YouTube
An Australian pilot who recently died when his small plane crashed in South America during a failed drug run has links to an alleged Kinahan cartel associate who is facing charges over the importation of a multimillion dollar cocaine shipment to Western Australia.
The body of former Melbourne stockbroker Timothy James Clark was reportedly found at the wreckage of his single-engine Sling 4 in Brazil’s north-east on September 14, along with about 200kg of cocaine.
Left: the wreckage of the small aircraft in a sugarcane field in Coruripe; Timothy Clark’s drivers licence. Right: cocaine seized by police. Source: Polícia Militar de Alagoas via G1
Local media said Clark was the sole occupant of the aircraft, which had been fitted with additional fuel tanks and appeared to have its transponder turned off.
Melbourne newspaper The Age reported on Thursday that Clark’s failed mission in South America was not his “first rodeo” and quoted a confidential source who alleged that the 46-year-old had been involved in a drug smuggling operation in Western Australia last year.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged German businessman Oliver Andreas Herrmann and Melbourne man Hamish Falconer with trafficking a commercial quantity of a controlled drug in December after a search of their hotel rooms uncovered 200kg of cocaine, packed in suitcases in single one-kilogram blocks, along with night vision goggles, aviation equipment and a hardware cryptocurrency wallet.
Insert: German national Oliver Herrmann. Top left: The Overlander Airport, where he allegedly met an aircraft on Dec 27, 2024. Bottom left: cocaine seized by the AFP. Right: Herrmann after he was detained. Source: Facebook / Oliver Herrmann, Google Street View, AFP
Herrmann had allegedly met a “small aircraft” at the remote Overlander Airstrip the day before his arrest. The AFP has not disclosed the make and model of the aircraft but said it had not seized an aircraft as part of its investigation.
Investigators estimated the street value of the drugs to be AUD $65 million and said an “organised crime syndicate” was likely responsible for the scheme.
In March, Bellingcat published an open source analysis of Herrmann’s online footprint and traced the champion marathon runner and international businessman to locations associated with the US-sanctioned Kinahan Organised Crime Group.
Crime boss Christy Kinahan and his sons Daniel Kinahan and Christopher Kinahan Jr have a collective US $15 million bounty on their heads.
It followed reporting by our publishing partner The Sunday Times, which revealed that Herrmann had “close financial ties” to Christy Kinahan, the 68-year-old founder of the eponymous international drug cartel. Herrmann had no previously known links to organised crime.
Bellingcat has now uncovered evidence linking alleged Kinahan cartel associate Herrmann to Timothy Clark, the Australian who was killed when his plane crashed in Brazil two weeks ago.
Timothy Clark, who said on a couchsurfing website that he loved to “party hard”, pictured with friends at a “BBQ party” in 2015. Source: Timothy Clark’s Facebook
Using online tools that consolidate publicly available information and reverse image searches, Bellingcat found more than a dozen accounts registered to Clark across social media platforms, travel websites and review platforms.
This open source review shows that the Australian pilot – who used the moniker “The Broker” on X and Instagram – documented his travels to more than 20 countries across Africa, South America, Europe and Asia over the past decade.
Clark frequently used Tripadvisor to post reviews, including about chartering a catamaran in Bali and the VIP service at a Saint-Tropez bar where he spent €5,500 on “ultra topshelf” drinks.
Timothy Clark, who was also involved in multiple businesses with interests in energy and mining, frequently posted photos of his overseas travels. Source: Tripadvisor
Clark was also an associate of Oliver Herrmann; the German businessman’s Facebook profile shows he was “friends” with the Australian pilot. And a 2018 restaurant review posted by Clark included a photo that shows the pair dining together in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare.
The filename of the photo is dated March 2, the same day that Herrmann logged a run in Harare on the fitness app, Strava. In the same week, Clark posted a review for a Harare bar close to where Herrmann recorded another GPS-tracked run on the same day.
Among his reviews about luxury hotels and wine pairings, Timothy Clark (left) posted a photo with Oliver Herrmann (right) at a restaurant in Harare in 2018. Source: Tripadvisor
Herrmann, an acclaimed runner who won the 2016 Munich Marathon, logged more than 2,500 activities across dozens of countries on Strava between 2013 and 2023. His use of the fitness app provided an extensive overview of his travels during that period.
Corporate records show Herrmann has been involved at senior levels with companies active in the fields of fintech, mining and consulting.
Locations of runs logged on Herrmann’s Strava account from September 2013 to January 2023. Source: Map data ©2025 Google, INEGI
Like Christy Kinahan, Clark had an active Google Maps profile where he posted reviews, photos and ratings. His profile used the alias “John Smithe”, but Clark is pictured in one of the images posted by the account and his real name is used in a reply from one of the venues, confirming it belongs to him.
Clark also left Tripadvisor reviews for two Zimbabwean venues – the Amanzi Lodge and Thetford Estate – which Christy Kinahan later attended, according to the cartel leader’s own Google Maps profile.
Clark, who lived in South Africa before his death, was also just one of eight X followers of Adam Wood, a known associate of Christy Kinahan in Africa.
Adam Wood (left) with cartel leader Christy Kinahan – known as the “Dapper Don” – at a 2019 aviation conference in Egypt.
South African news outlet City Press reported last week that Clark also operated a second aircraft for “legitimate” flights, a Beechcraft King Air 350 with Malawi registration number 7Q-YAO.
Bellingcat previously revealed that this aircraft was purchased in the US by an Indonesian company linked to Oliver Herrmann’s partner. It was then flown to Southern Africa by a ferry pilot who had also piloted a Pilatus PC-12 previously associated with a Kinahan-linked company.
Clark posted a Google review for a business at Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg on the same day in April 2024 that the Beechcraft King Air 350 landed there, according to tracking data from ADS-B Exchange.
Tracked flight path of the Beechcraft King Air 350 during its ferry flight from the USA to Africa in February 2024, with numerous subsequent flights also recorded in the region. Source: Flightradar24, Facebook, Google Earth
The Sunday Times reports today that the Sling 4 kit-plane piloted by Clark had been heavily modified for transatlantic flights. A source told the newspaper that Clark replaced the engine at least once in Brazil, indicating he was continuously flying it long-haul, and may have fitted a third engine due to the number of flying hours he was accumulating.
Clark’s plane crashed about an 11-hour flight from the Amazon basin, a region that has become a major trafficking route for cocaine bound for Europe, the drug’s fastest-expanding market.
The wreckage of Clark’s plane, which crashed earlier this month in Coruripe on the southern coast of the Brazilian state of Alagoas. Source: TV Pajuçara / YouTube
Tonnes of the drug flow from neighbouring Peru and Colombia, moving through the Amazon before being shipped to Europe and Africa.
The Sunday Times said Clark and Herrmann’s alleged activities suggested the Kinahan cartel had opened new smuggling routes for smaller shipments following a succession of seizures of cocaine consignments by police forces across Europe.
Oliver Herrmann, who has no known convictions, has not yet entered a plea. His case is listed for a committal mention in Perth Magistrates Court on October 10.
Peter Barth, Connor Plunkett, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this article.
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