Air opium

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Air Opium was the collective name for several mainly by Corsican gangsters in French Indochina operated charter airlines , after the French Air Force had withdrawn after the 1954th Commonly the following companies are meant:

The competitors of Air Laos Commerciale suffered from 1959 all dubious "accidents" or their bosses were arrested:

  • "Babal Air Force" operated by a former French Air Force officer: René "Babal" Enjabal
  • Gérard Labenski , operated the Cessna 195 from Phong Savan (northern Laos); Sentenced to four years in prison in Vietnam in 1960 .
  • the flight operations Roger Zoiles had close connections to Paul Louis Levet , who from 1954 organized the transport from morphine base to Europe (via Bangkok and Saigon) for the Corsican mafia. Levet was arrested in Bangkok on July 18, 1963, acquitted for lack of evidence and fled to Europe. Zoile became President of Laos Air Charter in the early 1970s (? 1969-75)

After the political upheaval in Laos in 1965, business continued until the Pathet Lao came to power in 1975 a . a. to Air America , Xieng Khouang Air Transport (1967–1972) of General Vang Pao and Laos Air Charter .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ McCoy, Alfred: The Politics of Heroin . rev. ed. Lawrence Hill & Co., New York 1991, ISBN 1-55652-126-X (first edition: 1972). S 295ff ( partly online ( memento from July 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ))
  2. ↑ McCoy 1991, p. 379
  3. ↑ McCoy 1991, p. 378 fn. 338