Customs officials in Brazil have found nearly 300 kilogrammes of cannabis on a plane belonging to a church.

The drugs, seen being offloaded from the aircraft in police footage, were found on the plane in a private hangar at Belem airport in the northern Brazilian state of Para on Saturday, May 27.

The Igreja Quadrangular (Foursquare Church), originally founded in California, confirmed that it owns the aircraft.

But it also claimed that a third party accessed the plane without permission, adding that it did not know where the drugs came from.

The federal police raided the hangar and arrested one man who was seen on the tarmac and who attempted to flee federal agents.

The suspect, who has not been named, was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking.

The police said they found 290 kilogrammes (639lbs) of skunk, which is a type of concentrated cannabis, on the plane, stashed inside cardboard boxes marked as eggs.

The Foursquare Churchsaid that the arrested man was an outsourced service provider who was supposed to clean the aircraft the day before the raid.

The church reportedly said in a statement that the man 'looked for our pilot wanting to make a flight to take, according to him, some tractor parts to an inland city.'

The church alleged that the man accessed the aircraft on Friday night, on May 26, and 'placed the cargo' inside it.

The church said that it did not know where the drugs came from and was only made aware of them after the police raid on the plane, which was set to fly to Petrolina.

Federal Police said in a statement on Saturday, May 27: 'The suspect was charged with interstate drug trafficking.

'The pilot was not arrested, as his participation in the crime was not verified.

'The aircraft was seized, as well as the mobile phone of the suspect.'

Paulo Bengtson, a member of the national and state board of the Foursquare Church, said that the plane had been used for three years to transport pastors and sick people around the state of Para.

Bengtson said: 'It is the first time that something like this has happened. We await the conclusion of this investigation, and are confident that all those involved will be punished.'

The investigation is ongoing.