Pedro Jose Benavides-Natera, who admitted using money from drug organizations to purchase airplanes, according to Hoenigman's affidavit.

Cessna is the third aircraft sold in the St. Petersburg area during the past two years to become the subject of an international investigation. In addition, a fourth aircraft was seized by Guatemalan authorities in 2004 after it was sold in St. Petersburg, according to its former owner.
The Cessna was sold as part of "a complex international money laundering scheme" to purchase airplanes for drug smuggling, according to an affidavit by FBI agent Michael Hoenigman. It was purchased from St. Petersburg-based Skyway Aircraft, FBI and FAA records state. It was to be used in transporting cocaine from Venezuela to Africa, according to the affidavit.
After being e-mailed a copy of the affidavit, Peters, who owns Skyway, referred questions to attorney Hunter Chamberlin.
"He doesn't know anything" about the airplane being used by drug smugglers, Chamberlin said. "This is a guy who has a very small company. Whatever happens to these airplanes after Mr. Peters sells them, they enter the stream of commerce and the last Larry Peters will see of the airplane."
It is not up to Peters to "do a criminal background check on all his potential customers," Chamberlin said.
Peters has not been contacted by any law enforcement agency from any country, the lawyer said.
FBI officials would not identify the organization. Peters is not named in the affidavit.
The Cessna's connection to drug trafficking turned up in an investigation of Benavides-Natera was part of a conspiracy to purchase aircraft from legitimate aircraft sellers for a Venezuelan-based drug organization using laundered currency from Mexico, according to the affidavit.
There is no information in the affidavit about what happened to the Cessna once it was sold to drug smugglers, and officials from the FBI declined to comment. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami did not return a call seeking comment.
Two other planes sold from this area are the subjects of an investigation into the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, according to the Mexican Attorney General's Office.
On April 5, 2006, a DC-9 left St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, bound for Venezuela. Days later, it was seized in Mexico, where the Mexican army found 5.5 tons of cocaine.
In September, a Gulfstream II flew out of the airport. Eight days later, it crashed in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. Mexican authorities found 3.7 tons of cocaine onboard.
The cocaine found on the two jets represents "a huge seizure," DEA spokesman Steven Robertson told the Tribune in November. The DEA is not involved in the FBI investigation into the Cessna, said DEA spokeswoman Jeannette Moran.
Peters also has connections to the former owner of the aircraft that crashed in Mexico. Through Atlantic Alcohol, a St. Petersburg-based company trying to import ethanol from Brazil, Peters is a business partner of Joao Malago, who sold the Gulfstream II.
Both Malago and Peters deny any connection to drug smugglers.
Peters refused to comment about the Cessna. In a previous interview, he did talk about a Beechcraft King Air 200 that was seized in Guatemala in 2004.
"We sold the King Air 200 to a gentleman in Venezuela," he said. "After we got into it, we found out some of these airplanes were used for carrying drugs, the one I sold."
After the sale of an aircraft, he said, he has nothing more to do with it.
"We deregister the airplane as soon as we sell it," he said.