4 French citizens sentenced to 20 years in Dominican Republic drug case

By Ezequiel Abiu Lopez

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic _ A court in the Dominican Republic has sentenced four French citizens to 20 years in prison for involvement in a 700-kilogram (1,500 pound) shipment of cocaine.

The three-judge panel ruled unanimously late Friday on the charge of association to commit international drug trafficking, and also sentenced four Dominicans to terms of between five and 10 years. The judges issued the ruling after nearly 12 hours of deliberation.

Attorneys for the French citizens said their clients are innocent and that they will appeal.

Pilots Pascal Jean Fauret and Bruno Odos were arrested in March 2013 along with flight assistant Alain Castany and passenger Nicolas Pisapia while preparing to fly a rented Falcon 50 jet from the Punta Cana tourist area to St. Tropez in France.

Authorities seized the cocaine inside 26 suitcases they said belonged to Pisapia, which he denied. His attorney, Julian Pinelli, accused authorities of falsifying evidence and setting his client up.

Defence attorneys argued in part that the anti-drug strike was illegal because it involved a commercial flight and noted that the government did not have authorization from a judge to carry out the raid.

“This sentence is an outrage,” said attorney Maria Elena Gratereaux. “We are very surprised.”

Fauret previously said that only the crew’s suitcases were in the main cabin, and that another 16 suitcases that he and Odos couldn’t see were in another compartment. However, one government official already sentenced in the case said he saw the pilots carry the suitcases aboard and pick up the cocaine bricks when some of them fell out of a suitcase, which the pilots denied.

“This is a triple catastrophe,” Fauret said Friday during his last declaration in court. He said he now depends economically on his mother and sisters, and that he has only seen his four children once since his arrest in 2013.

Rolando Rosado, former chief of the country’s anti-drug agency, testified during the trial that the French citizens were part of a drug-trafficking ring that had sent at least two previous drug shipments to Europe. During the 2013 seizure, authorities detained more than 40 military officials and government workers, of which only 10 were formally accused. The arrests occurred after a lengthy investigation that relied on undercover agents.