Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft.’ looks at the case of four French nationals who were arrested for drug trafficking at the Punta Cana airport in the Dominican Republic. With 700kg of cocaine found stuffed in 26 bags on board, the authorities didn’t have to think twice about arresting the two pilots, Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos, and two passengers, Alain Castany and Nicolas Pisapia. This was just the beginning of an almost decade-long ordeal for them, and the twists and turns in their story just kept coming.
Pascal Fauret’s Illustrious Career Took a Sharp Dive
Before his name got embroiled in the case of “Air Cocaine,” Pascal Fauret was a decorated French naval pilot. He had flown fighter jets, served in some deadly missions, and even received the license to fly planes carrying nuclear weapons. When he retired from the armed forces, his love for flying led him to seek a job in commercial aviation. It wasn’t until March 2013 that he found himself in the kind of trouble that seemed impossible to get out of. With 700kg of cocaine worth €20 million in the plane and no proper explanation as to how he and his co-pilot, Bruno Odos, didn’t know what the 26 bags on board contained, Pascal was thrown into a Dominican prison.
Like the rest of the accused, Pascal claimed innocence, saying that he didn’t know what was in the bags because his job title didn’t require him to check the passengers and their luggage. However, over the course of the trial, first in the Dominican Republic and then in France, it came to light that he had sent text messages to Pierre-Marc Dreyfus, co-owner of SNTHS and one of Pascal’s bosses, which suggested that the pilot had prior knowledge of the cocaine. The text had phrases like “nature of the load confirmed” and “Seen this afternoon.”
A Daring Escape Plan Saved Pascal Fauret from a Lifetime of Prison
For about a year or so, Pascal Fauret spent time in the Dominican prison, in atrocious circumstances. However, he and the other accused finally got to leave the prison. They were free to move around the city, but they were not allowed to leave the Dominican Republic. Believing that they won’t receive justice in the foreign country, he and Odos planned to escape, and they were helped by Christophe Naudin, Aymeric Chauprade, and Pierre Malinowski. After a turbulent journey through the choppy waters of the ocean, they were back in France in 2015. Meanwhile, they received a sentence of 20 years in absentia in the Dominican Republic.
The duo claimed that their return to France wasn’t an escape from the law but the desire to go through the proper cycle of justice. Pascal said that his instinct to return to France was driven by the wish to receive proper representation and a chance to explain himself in his homeland. Shortly after their arrival, he and Odos were arrested by the French authorities. He spent five and a half months in pretrial detention in a prison in Luynes. In 2019, a French court found him guilty of the charges levied against him in relation to drug trafficking, and he was sentenced to six years in prison. However, in 2021, following an appeal, he was acquitted of all charges and was declared an innocent and free man.
Since then, Pascal has opted to stay out of the public limelight and prefers to spend time with his wife, Sabine, and their children. He credits their unwavering support as the thing that kept him going, no matter how bad things got. To their credit, his family and friends were pretty vocal about his innocence and expressed their distress when he was found guilty in the first trial and refused to sit quietly until his innocence was proven. Now in his 60s, he lives a quiet life in France with his family. While he is a free man, he is also aware of the fact that the Dominican Republic still considers him guilty, and should he travel to the country with an extradition agreement, he might be taken back to the Dominican Republic and spend the rest of his life in prison.
Read More: Alain Castany: What Happened to the Cocaine Air Passenger?
