A court in Aix-en-Provence, France, sentenced two pilots that would have transported to France a shipment of 680kg of cocaine on board a Falcon private jet flight from Punta Cana International Airport to six years in jail. The case dates back to March 2013, when local narcotics officers detected the cocaine in 26 suitcases on board the plane that was to leave for St. Tropez in France with the two pilots and two passengers on board.
The pilots, Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos, had been sentenced to 20 years of jail by a Dominican court that said the pilots were responsible for what was on board. While on domiciliary arrest, they fled the Dominican Republic. The pilots were rearrested in November 2015 upon their return to France.
In the same case, touted by the international press as the “Air Cocaine” case, others were handed sentences for their involvement. These were Ali Bouchareb, described as the ringleader, who was given 18 years in prison. Frank Colin was given 12 years in jail for being his accomplice. Others sentenced were members of the airplane rental company SNTHS, Fabrice Alcaud and Pierre-Marc Dreyfus, who were sentenced to six years each, and former customs agent François-Xavier Manchet, ordered to serve five years in jail.
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BBC
8 April 2019