French ambassador Jose Gomez says that his country is investigating the two pilots who recently made the headlines with their escape from the Dominican Republic for their alleged roles in an international drug trafficking ring. In an interview published in Hoy, the ambassador denied that the French government had played a role in their escape, pointing out that the Member of the European Parliament who was allegedly involved is not connected to the French government. Gomez said that the pilots were able to enter France without their passports because their first port of entry was Martinique, a French overseas department. He said they were on conditional release and it was not a crime to not present themselves to the control. The Dominican judiciary is not investigating why the preventive custody of the pilots was changed to mere house arrest, despite having been sentenced to 20 years in jail for drug trafficking after almost 700 kg of cocaine was found on a private plane that they were about to fly from Punta Cana to St. Tropez.
The ambassador said that the French courts are investigating their role in previous trips from Puerto Plata n St. Tropez (December 2012), Quito – St Tropez (2013) and others to the north of Europe, part of an international drug trafficking network.
On Friday, 20 November 2015, the coordinating judge for National District courts, Jose Alejandro Vargas processed an international arrest warrant for the two fugitive pilots Pascal Jean Fauret and Bruno Odos, and for MEP Aymeric Chauprade, Christophe Naudin and Pierre Malinoswski for assisting in the escape of the two pilots who were under house arrest awaiting the appeal of their 20-year sentence for drug trafficking.
Read more in Spanish:
http://hoy.com.do/videos/todos/embajador-de-francia-en-rd-defiende-la-fuga-de-los-pilotos-franceses-del-pais/
http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2015/11/22/397229/procuraduria-obtiene-orden-de-arresto-contra-implicados-en-fuga-pilotos-franceses