The mayor of the Guyanese town of Apatou, Paul Dolianki, was arrested on Saturday in Orly and taken into custody for possession of narcotics, AFP learned from corroborating sources on Sunday. The elected official was arrested as he left the plane where narcotics were found in his luggage. He was carrying around 2.5 kilos of drugs, according to a judicial source.
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The mayor of this town of just under 10,000 inhabitants was taken into custody, said the Créteil prosecutor's office. " My client is totally foreign to the facts, he is not linked to drug trafficking, " assured his lawyer Avi Bitton, for whom there are " paid accomplices mules and mules manipulated without their knowledge ".
The suitcase would have been taken to render service to an acquaintance, explained one of his collaborators after having exchanged with the elected official. According to a source familiar with the matter, the drug bag was hidden in a double bottom of the luggage. " This shows that any citizen, even the most irreproachable, can find himself in the nets of justice ", affirmed Me Bitton.
Mr. Dolianki was scheduled to meet with a technical adviser to the Minister of Overseas Affairs on Monday, the ministry confirmed on Sunday. Mayor since 2008 of Apatou, a border commune with Surinam, Mr. Dolianki was re-elected in the first round of municipal elections on March 15 with 50.47% of the vote. The Guyanese territory is regularly pointed out by the authorities because of the importance of cocaine trafficking.