Morelia, Mexico, Oct 9 (EFE).– A small plane loaded with packets of cocaine crashed and burst into flames in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, an accident in which two suspected drug traffickers were killed, officials said.

The Cessna slammed into a mountain known as El Organito near the Pacific coast, the Michoacan state Attorney General’s Office said Thursday.

The initial probe indicates the aircraft crashed Wednesday night, probably due to the weight of the cocaine packets, which were wrapped in cinnamon-colored adhesive tape.

Authorities, however, have not specified the weight of the shipment.

The two men on board the aircraft, whose bodies were charred by the fire, died on impact. The two bodies were taken to a coroner’s office and are awaiting possible identification by their family members.

The drug traffickers probably were trying to land the plane at a nearby clandestine runway after detecting mechanical problems, residents of Maruata, a beach near where the crash occurred, told authorities.

Drug smugglers receive cocaine shipments from South America all along Michoacan’s more than 270 kilometers (170 miles) of Pacific coastline.

The drugs apparently arrive at remote, hard-to-access beaches in the municipalities of Lazaro Cardenas, Aquila and Coahuayana.

The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Los Caballeros Templarios and La Familia Michoacana drug-trafficking organizations operate in Michoacan, while the H-3 and Los Viagras armed gangs also are active in that state and are primarily involved in the production of synthetic drugs. EFE