Was the mayor a "mule", one of those people who transport drugs from one airport to another? Paul Dolianki, mayor of Apatou, Guyana, was arrested Saturday morning at Orly airport with more than two kilos of cocaine in his suitcases. The city councilor assures that he has nothing to do with this affair.
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"He was unaware of what the suitcase contained"
According to the city councilor, the suitcase with the drugs would not be his but that of a person close to him, in whom he trusted, and he would have transported it to Paris to be of service. In other words, according to the mayor he would have become a "mule" in spite of himself. "You should know that the conditions in which Mr. Dolianki was arrested clearly prove that he was not aware of what the suitcase contained", underlines his lawyer, Me Patrick Lingibé, President of Guyana, according to whom the mayor made "no difficulty" in opening his luggage.
"Investigations around the suspected person have shown that there is clearly no link with any drug trafficking", adds the council.
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An official trip to the French overseas ministry
The case is all the more embarrassing as Paul Dolianki came to Paris for an official trip: he had an appointment at the Ministry of Overseas Territories, to obtain additional funds for his municipality of 9,000 inhabitants, in the west of the Guyana. As it stands, the mayor faces up to ten years in prison.