Three suspects, including a Brazilian, remanded in custody in Paris after record cocaine seizure in Indian Ocean
Two Bolivians and a Brazilian were charged and remanded in custody on Friday in Paris following the interception of their vessel carrying more than a tonne of cocaine near Réunion Island.
Three suspects, including a Brazilian, remanded in custody in Paris after record cocaine seizure in Indian Ocean
Two Bolivian nationals and a Brazilian have been placed in provisional detention in Paris on Friday, following the boarding of their ship in the Indian Ocean with a cargo of more than a tonne of cocaine, according to sources close to the matter cited by the AFP.
The operation took place on 25 June near the French island of Réunion. The authorities then seized a quantity of drugs exceeding one tonne, according to several consistent sources. The three individuals were undertaking a journey between South America and Australia at the time of their interception.
Presented before the Paris courts on Friday, the suspects were formally charged. A magistrate subsequently ordered their imprisonment pending the continuation of proceedings. The National Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organised Crime has opened a judicial investigation into this matter, according to reports in the newspaper Le Figaro.
The 58-year-old Brazilian suspect presented himself to investigators as a simple fisherman. When contacted by the AFP, his counsel, Maître Eliott Amzallag, stated that his client "has no connection with drug trafficking circles, who have clearly taken advantage of his physical and mental vulnerability". The lawyer emphasised the man's vulnerable state: "He is an elderly and exhausted person."
The two other defendants, Bolivians aged between their thirties and forties, have also been imprisoned in Paris as part of these proceedings. Maître Baptiste Bellet, representing the younger of the two, told the AFP that his client "will cooperate fully" with the justice system. He expressed confidence: the investigation will demonstrate, in his view, that his client "has no connection with the criminal network that is the subject of the investigation". As for the counsel of the fifty-year-old, Maître Sophie Guimanant, she preferred not to comment on the matter.
Source: O Globo
Source: Google News BR — Crime