The True Story of ‘Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30000 Ft.’

Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft. tells a truth that’s wilder than fiction.

For over a decade, pilots Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos have claimed they had no idea that 26 suitcases aboard a jet they piloted in 2013 were packed with cocaine. But authorities in the Dominican Republic — where their private plane was scheduled to take off before heading to France — believed otherwise. After discovering more than 1,500 lbs. of cocaine inside the plane’s luggage, Fauret and Odos were arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

Nicknamed the “Air Cocaine” case by French media, the high-profile smuggling operation drew international attention. It became even more sensational in 2015, when Fauret and Odos pulled off a dramatic escape from the Dominican Republic back to France.

Though the men were rearrested upon their return, both pilots were acquitted in 2021 after new testimony suggested they had been unwitting pawns in the scheme. 

Their story was revisited in Netflix’s 2025 docuseries Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft. But even filmmakers Olivier Bouchara and Jérôme Pierrat are uncertain about how much the pilots truly knew.

“Sometimes, we’d be shooting a scene and we’d look at each other and think, ‘Wait, maybe they knew. Maybe they were in on it,’ ” Bouchara told TIME in June 2025. “Other times, we’d come across a detail that made us doubt everything again. And that’s part of what we wanted to share: not a verdict, but a conversation.”

Here’s everything to know about the true story of Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft. 

Who are Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos? 

Fauret and Odos are pilots and former members of the French military, per VICE. At the time of their arrest, they were flying a private jet chartered by a rental company in southeast France called SN-THS. 

France 24 reported that the men were French naval and air force fighter pilots who had transported nuclear weapons before switching to corporate charters. French businessman Alain Afflelou owned the Dassault Falcon 50 corporate jet they flew. 

What happened to Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos?

On March 20, 2013, Dominican officials discovered more than 1,500 lbs. of cocaine hidden among 26 suitcases aboard a private aircraft that Fauret and Odos had piloted to the Punta Cana Airport, per VICE. They were arrested and sentenced to 20 years in jail, according to the BBC. 

Both Fauret and Odos denied having any knowledge that drugs were aboard their plane.

“They tell me the date, and I fly,” Fauret said in the docuseries, per TIME. “I never know the purpose of the trip.”

Who were the other suspects in Cocaine Air?

In addition to Fauret and Odos, crew member Alain Castany and passenger Nicolas Pisapia were also arrested after the discovery, per VICE. Around 20 Dominican customs and police officers were implicated in the case, as well as former bodyguard and alleged drug trafficking kingpin Frank Colin, per Le Parisien.

Colin allegedly contacted Castany to help him find a private plane for transatlantic flights, and Castany directed him to SN-THS. Fauret and Odos piloted two other flights — one to Saint-Tropez and another to Ecuador — before the infamous route the French media dubbed “Air Cocaine,” per Le Parisien.

Pisapia was also aboard those two flights. Colin denied any knowledge of trafficking and claimed to arrange the flights at the request of someone named “Daryan,” whom he met at a nightclub, according to the outlet.

How did Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos escape?

Fauret and Odos were released from prison in 2015 while awaiting an appeal ruling for the 20-year sentence, per The Guardian. Though barred from leaving the Dominican Republic, they flew back to France allegedly with the help of a French politician, former naval officers and former intelligence agents who were all “friends” from their time in the service. The French foreign ministry denied any involvement. 

A French television station claimed that Fauret and Odos left the Dominican on a tourist cruise before being transported to a larger boat that took them to the French Antilles. There, they boarded a commercial flight to Paris using their real names. 

“We’re dealing with a judicial system … that condemned us to 20 years for the sole reason we were French,” Fauret said during a press conference after the escape. “I was imprisoned in an isolation cell for two weeks then … in a cell of six square meters. They shaved my head.” 

Why were Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos acquitted?

Upon their arrival in France, Fauret and Odos were rearrested in November 2015, the BBC reported. In 2019, a French court sentenced them to six years in prison for their alleged involvement. 

Colin was sentenced to 12 years, and a man named Ali Bouchareb, who was labeled as the ringleader in the trafficking case, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.  

Two years after their sentencing, Fauret and Odos were acquitted after an unnamed figure in the case told investigators that the pilots had been “conned,” France 24 reported.

In 2025, both men were interviewed for Cocaine Air. They haven’t flown a plane since 2013, they told the docuseries.