Sitting on the asphalt at Punta Cana international airport in the Dominican Republic, the private plane was about to take off for an overnight flight to Saint-Tropez in France when police swooped.

Inside the aircraft, a Dassault Falcon 50, officers found four Frenchmen – two pilots and two passengers – along with 680kg of cocaine, with an estimated street value of €20m (£17.5m), in 26 battered suitcases.

Six years later, the trial of nine people accused of being part of a drug smuggling operation began in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, on Monday. Among the accused were two former French military pilots, a customs officer and a celebrity bodyguard.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/18/air-cocaine-drug-trafficking-trial-begins-in-france

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