Wilder than a Coen Brothers film, the sprawling true story behind Netflix‘s new documentary mini-series “Cocaine Air: Smugglers” has captivated French individuals for over a decade, after two former French air power pilots, Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos, had been arrested in Punta Cana, within the Dominican Republic, with greater than 1,500 kilos of cocaine overseas the non-public airplane they had been flying.

Their adventures, together with an epic escape by boat that concerned a far proper deputy, Aymeric Chauprade, a former European Parliament assistant, Pierre Malinowski, and an aviation safety professional, Christophe Naudin, have now gone totally viral throughout the globe because of the documentary collection. Directed by Olivier Bouchara and Jerome Pierrat, “Cocaine Air” has already lured hundreds of thousands of views on Netflix since June 11, rating second on the weekly high 10 for non-English content material, following the South Korean revenge present “Mercy for None.”

Pushed by colourful archetypes, “Cocaine Air” cleverly juxtaposes interviews with the pilots, who nonetheless declare they’d no thought what the 26 suitcases boarded on the small airplane contained; the fiercely decided French decide, Christine Saunier-Ruellan, who led the investigation from Marseille and made positive the pilots turned fugitives had been arrested once they made their approach again to France; the boys (Chauprade, Malinowski and Naudin) who allegedly helped the pilots escape the Dominican Republic; former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was at one level suspected to be concerned within the case; Dominican main basic Rosado Mateo and justice minister Dominguez Brito who’re nonetheless hopeful that the pilots – who had been acquitted in 2021 in France after an preliminary six-year sentence verdict — will in the future face the 20-year sentence they received within the Dominican Republic; in addition to Alain Afflelou, the French optical trade entrepreneur whose non-public airplane, named Falcon 50, was rented out the day that it carried the stash of cocaine and has been caught in Punta Cana for over a decade; and Laurent Fiocconi, aka El Mago, the previous chemist of Pablo Escobar.

The recognition of “Cocaine Air” on Netflix has even surpassed that of “Lords of Rip-off,” one other comedy-filled authentic documentary based mostly on a tentacular investigation by Bouchara and Pierrat which got here out in 2021 and charted the rise and fall of conmen who cheated the EU carbon quota system and pocketed hundreds of thousands earlier than turning on one another.

Chatting with Selection about “Cocaine Air,” Bouchara stated he and Pierrat had been “fascinated from the outset by how unreal the scene of the arrest was. “4 Frenchmen arrested on the tarmac at Punta Cana with 700 kilos of cocaine in a personal jet. It’s like a spin-off of ‘Narcos,’ besides that not one of the 4 match the profile,” Bouchara joked. “Two pilots, former air power heroes, household males. And two passengers with no felony information, not even for stealing potatoes. It was this dissonance that made us wish to dig deeper.”

He and Pierrat had been capable of pull collectively the investigation because of their sources throughout the justice system and police, together with “extra shady circles,” Bouchara stated, citing “Pablo Escobar’s former chemist, and the mercenary who smuggled the pilots out by boat, in addition to a couple of characters who appear to be they’ve stepped out of a Soderbergh movie.” Considered one of them is Sarkozy, who’s fittingly quoted within the opening credit saying “Have we develop into loopy? That’s the query we should ask ourselves.” The previous president, who’s at the moment serving a jail sentence with an digital ankle tag on fees of affect peddling and corruption, was questioned by the decide, Saunier-Ruellan, as a result of his identify confirmed up within the registers of the aviation firm. He had in truth made a visit onboard the Falcon 50 airplane with Stephane Courbit, the boss of Banijay.

Bouchara stated he and Pierrat managed to safe an interview with Sarkozy by promising him they wouldn’t caricature him. “We advised him we’d enable him to precise how he felt when he noticed his identify related to an enormous cocaine scandal,” Bouchara stated. “He claims to have been the sufferer of a relentless judicial marketing campaign for years. For him, this case is an ideal instance of that.”

Pierrat, who additionally labored with Bouchara on “Lords of Rip-off” and “Le Masque,” one other doc a couple of masterful conman who swindled French elites, is a well-known journalist and professional on organized crime who labored on Jack Thorne’s “Panthers” and has penned a number of books. Bouchara, in the meantime, is the editor-in-chief of Vainness Truthful France.