20-year-old influencer and co-pilot Jabari Stephen Brown, known as Captain Treezy, was among those detained after the seizure after rising to fame by winning a viral MrBeast challenge in late 2025.[1][2][3] Three United States citizens who travelled aboard the jet remain in Paraguayan custody.[1][4] Authorities identified the second pilot and registered owner of the jet as Estonian citizen Keith Siilats and issued an arrest warrant against him for international drug trafficking and unauthorized possession of narcotics.[1][2][3] Siilats, who left Paraguay before the operation, told InSight Crime he had no knowledge of the marijuana on board and plans to cooperate fully with Paraguayan authorities.[1][2] Brown was briefly detained after the seizure but was released on 31 May after investigators found no evidence he knew about the drugs, according to a SENAD representative.[1][4][2][5]
Paraguayan authorities discovered 261.6 kilograms of high-THC cannabis valued at US$3.6 million being unloaded from the aircraft at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asuncion on 29 May.[1][6] The aircraft had departed Miami, stopped in Panama and then arrived in Paraguay, and investigators believe the marijuana was destined for Brazil.[1][4][5][7][8] Paraguayan anti-drug prosecutor Ingrid Cubilla said the estimated value reflected demand in Brazil, where each kilogram can reach nearly US$14,000 on the illicit market.[1][2][6]
The seized aircraft was a Bombardier Challenger 604, not the Hawker 400XP that Brown won in the MrBeast contest.[1] The Bombardier Challenger carried United States registration N116HL, and military personnel at the airport participated alongside SENAD agents in the seizure.[7] A SENAD officer said the use of a large executive aircraft was unusual among seizures recorded in the country.[1] Anti-drugs minister Jalil Rachid confirmed that the jet was initially confiscated pending a court decision on whether to transfer its administration to Senabico, Paraguay’s seized-assets agency.[7] The English edition confirms that Brown was released on May 31, according to a representative of Paraguay’s drug enforcement agency.[9]
A Paraguayan judge, Rosarito Montanía, ordered the pretrial detention of Marisol Rivas, Troy Anthony Vásquez and David Thomas Wise because they had no ties to Paraguay.[4][7] Defence lawyer Rafael Fernández, representing two of the US citizens, questioned Brown’s release after prosecutor Ingrid Gisselle Cubilla Villamayor said he cooperated throughout the investigation.[7] The men were held at the Centro Nacional de Prevenidos in Asunción, and Rivas was sent to the prison at Emboscada, in the Cordillera department.[4][7] Fernández said his clients claimed the pilot had hired all three passengers to travel to Paraguay on holiday.[7] The passengers were named as Marisol Rivas, 39, from New York; Troy Anthony Vásquez, 42, from Florida; and David Thomas Wise, 58, from California.[4][3] Wise chartered the aircraft through a California company for USD 91,485, according to prosecutor Ingrid Cubilla.[4] Paraguayan authorities arrested three of the US travellers in Asunción hotels and the co-pilot at the airport.[4][6] The three detained passengers face international trafficking and unauthorised possession charges under articles 21 and 27 of Paraguay’s Drug Law 1,340, according to ABC.[4][2] SENAD agents intercepted the Challenger 604 in an airport hangar after a crew member tried to remove luggage containing eight packages of the marijuana.[4][2][6] SENAD said the airport raid took place under Programa Colibrí, an inter-agency initiative uniting SENAD, the Paraguayan Air Force, civil aviation authority DINAC, customs and tax agency DNIT, and the National Police.[8]
Senad identified Siilats as a co-founder of the micromobility company Bolt Mobility in the United States.[2] The four detainees were taken from SENAD’s operations base to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, where prosecutors took their statements.[2][5]
Three of the passengers, Marisol Rivas, Anthony Vásquez and David Thomas Wise, were also detained, all United States citizens and crew members of the jet.[5] According to ABC Color, the three were charged with international drug trafficking.[5][7] Brown was detained in a hotel in Asunción rather than at the airport.[5] Brown won a Hawker 400XP business jet, worth about US$2.4 million, by picking the winning briefcase in MrBeast’s ‘100 Pilots Fight For A Private Jet’ contest.[5]
Senad said it was still searching for other people implicated in the shipment.[6][8]
The marijuana was found being unloaded from the aircraft in several suitcases that were to be moved on by land, and Senad said the load was valued at about US$3.6 million on the illicit market.[3] Senad said the aircraft was piloted by Estonian technology businessman Keith Siilats, who was not located during the operations that led to the detentions and who, according to intelligence, left Paraguay on Saturday morning hours before the hangar intervention.[3] El Horizonte reports that the flight left Miami, stopped in Panama and then landed in Paraguay, without explaining how that fits its statement that the aircraft came from the United States.[3] RCC reported that Siilats would also be the owner of the aircraft used to carry the load, and that authorities were trying to establish who was to receive the marijuana.[10]
