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BUSINESS

French tycoon’s jet found packed with cocaine

A French bound jet seized in the Dominican Republic with almost 700 kg of cocaine on board belonged to renowned businessman Alain Afflelou, it has been revealed. The owner of an opticians empire was said to be “amazed” at the news.

Published: 25 March 2013 18:41 CET
French tycoon's jet found packed with cocaine
Alain Afflelou, pictured in Paris on September 20th, 2012. Photo: Eric Piermont/AFP

Dominican customs officials found 680 kg of cocaine in 26 suitcases aboard the private Falcon jet owned by Afflelou.

"Alain heard the news last night, through the media, and he's amazed,” said his spokeswoman on Sunday.

The famed owner of an international chain of opticians bearing his name, had loaned the aircraft to the Lyon-based Transhelicopter Services company.

On March 22nd, four French nationals – as well as several local police officers and customs officers – were arrested in the Dominican Republic on suspicion of being part of a drug-trafficking network about to transport the cocaine to Versailles, close to Paris.

A lawyer for Afflelou claimed he would “take the necessary steps to establish what happened”, and that a letter “demanding an explanation” had been sent to the French leasing company, according to regional daily Ouest-France.

Afflelou caused controversy in France in December when he condemned the French government for engaging in a “trench warfare” against entrepreneurs and others “trying to succeed”.

Announcing that he was moving to Britain, Afflelou seemed to suggest France’s “unjust and confiscatory tax system” was leading the country down a path towards the bloody, anti-business recriminations of the 1789 Revolution.

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CRIME

French police summon Gérard Depardieu over suspected sexual assault

French police summoned cinema legend Gérard Depardieu on Monday over suspected incidents of sexual assault with a view towards placing him in custody for questioning, a police source said.

Published: 29 April 2024 11:23 CEST
French police summon Gérard Depardieu over suspected sexual assault

Police were to question the actor over two women’s allegations that he assaulted them – one on a film set in 2014 and the other on another shoot in 2021, the source said, confirming a report by the BFMTV television channel.

The first woman accuses him of having assaulted her when she was a member of the crew on the 2022 feature film “The Green Shutters”.

The set designer, who filed a formal complaint in February, told investigative website Mediapart that Depardieu grabbed her as she left the set in a private hotel in Paris, groping her and making obscene comments, before his bodyguards removed him.

The second woman has alleged he groped her “all over” and made “inappropriate” remarks while she was an assistant on the set of 2015 film “Le magician et le Siamois” (“The Magician and the Siamese”), she told regional newspaper Le Courrier de l’Ouest.

Depardieu already faces a rape charge, as well as claims of assault by more than a dozen women – all of which he has strongly denied.

“Never ever have I abused a woman,” Depardieu wrote in Le Figaro newspaper in October.

Police in 2020 charged Depardieu with rape and sexual assault after actor Charlotte Arnould alleged he raped her in 2018 when she was 22.

Another sexual assault complaint filed last year by actor Hélène Darras, who said Depardieu groped and propositioned her during a 2007 film shoot, has been dropped for being past the statute of limitations.

Spanish journalist and author Ruth Baza said in December she had filed a criminal complaint in Spain against Depardieu, claiming he raped her in 1995 in Paris.

Despite the events having passed the statute of limitations, she said she decided to file her complaint hoping it would “help other people” to do the same.

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