Seven men were arrested Monday when a navy speed boat stopped the vessel on the Caratasca Lagoon in north-eastern Honduras, 500 kilometres north-east of the capital, Tegucigalpa, the Honduran Navy said.

Tuesday, an airplane smuggling 100 kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela crashed in the village of El Negrito, in the Caribbean region of Honduras, killing the pilot.

Honduras’ government says a cocaine-filled plane being pursued by U.S. anti-drug helicopters crashed on Tuesday.

Vice Minister of Security Mario Perdomo says authorities estimate the plane was carrying about 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of cocaine, although all but 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of the drug burned in the crash.

Perdomo told reporters Tuesday that two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration helicopters were pursuing the aircraft that went down near El Negrito town in northern Honduras.

Perdomo says the plane left Venezuela and was heading to Honduras’ Bay Islands, a transit point for U.S.-bound cocaine.

Honduran authorities estimated that drug traffickers transport about 60 tons of cocaine every year by sea and plane through the remote jungles on the border with Nicaragua.