In early August, a professional violinist, member of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté Symphony Orchestra, was arrested near the Franco-Italian border with 38.3 kilograms of cocaine hidden in his car. On Friday, the Nice criminal court sentenced Beng Bakalli to 3 years in prison and a hefty fine of 1.1 million euros.
The criminal offense he was charged with was the purchase, possession and transportation of narcotics, as well as money laundering and illegal possession of weapons. The father of 4 children had no previous criminal record. The prosecution had requested a sentence of 6 years in prison.
The events date back to August 10, when at the La Turbie toll booth, customs officers stopped a Citroën C5 Aircross driven by a man, a professional violinist. Under the car's carpet, they discovered a large quantity of drugs, specifically 38.33 kilograms of cocaine, equivalent to just over 1 million euros on the street.
But that's not all. When the musician was in police custody in Nice, investigators searched his home in Besançon, where they seized 90,000 euros in cash and discovered 4 category B and C firearms and a large quantity of ammunition.
Regarding the large amount of cash, the suspect claimed that it was a gift from his father, Hasan Bakalli, also a violinist, and, regarding the possession of weapons and ammunition, that he practiced sport shooting.
“I can’t explain how I ended up here,” he said during the hearing. The 45-year-old, born in Albania and resident in France since 1991, is a professional violinist who studied at several conservatories in France (Lyon, Dijon, Besançon) and is an intermittent member of the Victor-Hugo Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (OVH) symphony orchestra. ©LAPSI.al
