Jabari Brown, the young American pilot who went viral after winning a private jet worth $2.4 million in a MrBeast YouTube challenge, was detained in Paraguay after authorities seized over 261 kilos of marijuana from a private aircraft he was co-piloting.
He has since been released after prosecutors determined he had no involvement in the drug trafficking.
What happened in Paraguay
On Saturday, agents from Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat, known as SENAD, seized a Bombardier Challenger 604 private jet at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport outside Asuncion, according to Local outlet ABC Color.
The aircraft had flown in from Miami, with a stopover in Panama City before landing in Paraguay.
Authorities found 261.6 kilos of high-THC marijuana hidden inside black bags that looked like cases for musical equipment. According to local reports, the three American passengers told officials they were carrying musical instruments. SENAD estimated the drugs could be worth about $3.6 million, based on a value of around $14,000 per kilo on the Brazilian market, as cited by High Times.
Brown, 21, was co-piloting the aircraft. He was arrested Saturday night at a hotel in Asuncion is the fourth person detained in connection with the case, according to High Times. Three other US nationals, Marisol Rivas who is 39 and from New York, Troy Anthony Vasquez who is 42 and from Florida and David Thomas Wise who is 58 from California were also arrested and later charged with international drug trafficking, according to the Associated Press.
The main pilot of the aircraft was identified by SENAD as Keith Siilats, 47, an Estonian citizen described as a co-founder of the micromobility company Bolt Mobility in the United States. According to the local outlet, Siilats left Paraguay shortly after the plane landed and could not be located when authorities carried out the seizure. He was reportedly scheduled to return on Monday to fly the passengers back.
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Why was Jabari Brown released later?
Brown was released after Paraguay’s Prosecutor’s Office concluded he had no involvement in the drug smuggling. Officials said he cooperated fully and had no knowledge of what the passengers were carrying, as per KTVB7.
After his release, Brown addressed the situation on his Instagram stories. “You may not know why now, but you’ll understand later has been a scripture I leaned on for years and it has come to the front line of my life again,” he wrote. “Anybody who knows me knows who I truly am along with what I would and wouldn’t do.”
He also posted: “I have come to learn that there are a lot of evil and selfish people in this world who care about no one but themselves and don’t care how their actions can affect others who are completely clueless to their motives.”
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But who is Jabari Brown?
Brown, also known online as Captain Treezy has became an internet sensation after winning MrBeast’s 2025 YouTube challenge titled “100 Pilots Fight For A Private Jet,” in which 100 pilots competed through a series of exhausting aviation-themed challenges for a Hawker 400XP jet valued at $2.4 million. The Jamaican-American pilot was just 20 years old at the time and had reportedly hoped to use the aircraft to launch a charter business.
However, the jet Brown won in the MrBeast challenge was not involved in the Paraguay drug case.
