Former French robber-turned-painter-actor Jean-Claude Pautot was arrested on a sailing boat off the Azores in late December with 740kg of cocaine, a Spanish source close to the investigation told AFP on Monday.
“During his arrest, Jean-Claude Pautot was on a sailboat loaded with 740 kilos of cocaine that was sailing “in international waters,” “150 nautical miles” from the Portuguese archipelago, she said.
This source confirmed information from the Journal du Dimanche
The sixty-year-old, a former organized crime figure, has been placed under judicial custody in Spain’s Cadiz province (south).
After decades of robberies, imprisonment and escapes, Jean-Claude Pautot had settled down, became an artist-painter and co-authored the comic “Face au Mur”, a fiction directly inspired by his life.
Also as an actor, he rose up the steps at the last Cannes Film Festival for the film “The Innocent” directed by Louis Garrel, in which he played a supporting role.
According to the Spanish source, nine other people – French, Spanish and Moroccan – have been arrested in connection with this ongoing investigation.
According to the JDD, the sailboat had left Martinique and arrests were also taking place in France, where a further 390 kilos of cocaine were seized as part of this joint operation by French and Spanish authorities.