Netflix’s new drama Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft. is a true story that feels like it’s been ripped from the fictional drug drama Narcos – and that’s something the filmmakers themselves are the first to admit.
Speaking of the four-man arrest that’s at the centre of the story, director Olivier Bouchara told Variety that “it’s like a spinoff of Narcos, except that none of the four fit the profile. Two pilots, former air force heroes, family men. And two passengers with no criminal records, not even for stealing potatoes”.
The story begins on the 19th of March, 2013, as a Falcon 50 business jet gets ready for take-off in the Dominican Republic. But before it can fly the anti-drug squad swoop in, because there are 26 suitcases full of dope on board.
Alongside two passengers the pilots are arrested. They protest their innocence and ignorance of their cocaine cargo – “we’re pilots, not baggage handlers” – but they and the accused passengers are thrown in jail.
Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft. tells the story of how they ended up there and what happened next, and it has soared to second place on Netflix’s global top 10 for non-English content, putting it in the running to be one of the best Netflix shows.
What are people saying about Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft.?
As with many Netflix documentaries, there’s an argument that the material has been stretched longer than it needs to be to tell the story over a too-long period; Decider definitely felt that at three 45-minute episodes: “it’s majorly stretching its material.” But the mystery at the heart of the story – were the men guilty as charged, or was it a setup? – is intriguing, so much so that the case was a media sensation in France with alleged connections to the rich, famous and powerful in that country.
Over on r/netflix, top commenter LKS983 “thoroughly enjoyed it – and even laughed out loud a few times at some of the ‘porkies’ being told!”. It’s “one of those stories that gets crazier each episode,” agreed the excellently named Elegant-Leg540, who “started out thinking the pilots were naive innocents then ended up not so sure.”
Telerabbit9000 couldn’t believe that the pilots didn’t know what was in their cargo. “When they say ‘I didnt care what the cargo was, as long as I was paid’ they had to be getting paid so much that they would have known what the cargo was. (And if they werent getting paid 1 million, they are even bigger fools, taking such a risk for no money.)”
And the also excellently named 60percentsexpanther loved it too, and was equally dubious about the pilots’ evidence. “Imagine putting 34 days worth of blow for the entire city of London in a single plane and then claiming you thought it was all bikinis, knickers, flip flops and sunglasses and you never knew 😂.”
Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft. is streaming now on Netflix.
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