A Saudi prince used diplomatic immunity to smuggle more than two tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe on his personal airplane in a trafficking conspiracy in which paintings by Goya and Foujita were used to pay for drugs.
In the conspiracy stretching from Venezuela and Miami to the streets of Europe, the Saudi worked with Colombian traffickers and a real estate agent in Miami to ship 4,400 pounds (two tonnes) of cocaine from Caracas to Paris in 1999.
An affidavit signed by a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent described the man, Nayef bin Sultan bin Fawwaz al-Shaalan, as "a prince in the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, but who is not in direct accession to the throne."
However, a spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington denied that al-Shaalan was a member of the Saudi royal family and said the embassy had not heard of him.
US agents seized and hope to auction the late 18th century work "El Atraco a la Diligencia" (Attack on a Coach) by Spanish master Francisco de Goya and the 1924 work "Buste de Jeune Femme" (Bust of a Young Woman) by Japanese artist Tsuguharu Foujita, which may be worth more than $1 million each.