The so-called Air Cocaine case in the Dominican Republic is being covered closely in French press, with investigations now touching upon higher up French politicians, including former President Nicolas Sarkosky and Jean-Marie Le Pen.
In recent developments, the two French pilots who fled from the Dominican Republic last week where they were under house arrest pending appeal, having been sentenced to 20 years for drug trafficking have now been arrested in France. In France, the pilots are not being investigated in regards to their escape from the DR on 27 October 2015 or their case for drug trafficking in Punta Cana for which they were sentenced, but rather in connection with an earlier case in December 2012 when cocaine was known to arrive to France on another flight of the same private plane as reported in French media.
French police arrived at their homes early in the morning of Monday 2 November 2015 and Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos were taken to Marseilles where they were interrogated by Instructing Judge Christine Saunier-Ruellan. The French media has confirmed the judge called for technical data about 60-year-old former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s phones to be investigated.
Meanwhile, Fauret and Odos’ lawyer Eric Dupond-Moretti assured the judge hearing the case that they were innocent of the charge of drug dealing and that they had nothing to do with the 700 kilograms of cocaine found in 26 suitcases on board the private jet they were piloting.
Dupond-Moretti was critical of the French authorities’ decision to arrest his clients, since they never had tried to evade being investigated by the French legal system. The lawyer said there was no need to put them through the humiliation of being arrested and handcuffed in front of their families and neighbors.
Dupond-Moretti also said his client’s extradition to the Dominican Republic as requested by the Dominican authorities was impossible.
Another lawyer for former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed that his client is also being pursued by the judge in Marseille under suspicion of having flown to the Dominican Republic using the same company and plane. Sarkozy’s lawyer Me Herzog demanded clarification about reports that the judge in the French drug investigation requested the former-President’s cell phone data.
The Daily Mail of England reports that a French judge ordered two mobile phones belonging to Sarkozy to be examined in relation to the ?35million cocaine smuggling scandal. The former French President’s name now is known to appear in court papers about an attempt to fly 680kg of the drug out of the Dominican Republic. The request calls for providing of ‘details of telephone lines used by Nicolas Sarkozy and his entourage in the period March 2013 and March 2014’. The judge also wanted ‘detailed bills’ and ‘geolocalisation for the months of March and April 2013’, according to papers obtained by the French Journal du Dimanche. Journal du Dimanche.
The Daily Mail highlights that the French pilots involved in the case dubbed ‘Air Cocaine’ made a ‘James Bond-style’ escape from the Dominican Republic, that has lead to accusations that politicians in their own country were involved in setting them free.
French media Le Journal du Dimanche (LeJDD) reports that the parliamentary assistant of Jean-Marie Le Pen, Pierre Malinowski was on board the speedboat on which the two convicted pilots departed the Dominican Republic. Le Pen has distanced himself from the involvement of Malinowski. Also mentioned in the case is involvement of Aymeric Chauprade.
Locally, an editorial in Diario Libre says that Dominicans need not be concerned with the fugitive pilots and should focus on what happened here. “Because of the pilots’ escape, the Judicial Branch should carry out an indepth investigation into the conduct of the judges, prosecutors and lawyers that acted in the case. In the same way, security organizations need to get to the bottom of what happened to these people that should have been under surveillance,” writes the editorialist. Diario Libre says it is clear there was “negligence” on behalf of local security services.
http://www.listindiario.com/las-mundiales/2015/11/02/394597/arrestan-a-los-dos-pilotos-franceses-que-escaparon-de-republica-dominicana
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3298958/Ex-French-president-Nicolas-Sarkozy-s-mobile-phones-seized-examined-judges-probing-35m-cocaine-smuggling-ring.html
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/11/02/france-arrests-2-pilots-who-fled-drug-conviction-in-dominican-republic/
http://www.lejdd.fr/Politique/Nicolas-Sarkozy-sur-Air-cocaine-Meme-Pablo-Escobar-n-a-pas-ete-ecoute-758151
http://www.lejdd.fr/Societe/Justice/Air-cocaine-les-deux-pilotes-places-en-detention-provisoire-758087
http://www.lejdd.fr/Societe/Justice/Air-Cocaine-un-proche-de-Jean-Marie-Le-Pen-present-lors-de-la-fuite-des-pilotes-758125
http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/editorial/los-pilotos-HB1762898