AIR FRANCE FLIGHT 447, ARMAMENTS AND DRUGS.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva greets French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in Rio de Janeiro, in December 2008. Sarkozy was there to sign an arms deal. (Ricardo Moraes/Associated Press)

Pablo Dreyfus, a 39-year-old Argentinian, was on board the Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

(Sunday Herald Key figures in global battle against illegal arms trade lost in Air France crash)

Dreyfus had worked with the Brazilian authorities to stop the flow of arms and ammunition to the drug barons in Rio.

Also on flight 447 was Dreyfus's friend Ronald Dreyer.

Dreyer, a Swiss diplomat, was co-ordinator of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence.

He had worked with UN missions in El Salvador, Mozambique, Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Angola.

Both Dreyfus and Dreyer were consultants at the Small Arms Survey, a think tank based at Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies.

Dryer had helped gather the support of more than 100 countries to the cause of disarmament.

Dreyfus knew that the Brazilian arms firm CBC (Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos) had become one of the world's biggest ammunition producers.

CBC had bought Germany's Metallwerk Elisenhutte Nassau (MEN) in 2007, and Sellier & Bellot (S&B) of the Czech Republic in March.

Dreyfus and Dreyer were on their way to Geneva to present the latest edition of the Small Arms Survey handbook.

Key figures in global battle against illegal arms trade lost in Air France crash

Photo from: WMD Insights

Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Brazil in December 2008.

He signed a Brazil-France agreement in the areas of defense and nuclear energy.

Brazil will build five submarines, including a nuclear one, with French technology.

France will help Brazil in the construction of six nuclear power plants in Brazil. -news.xinhuanet.com

"Sources said an anonymous male caller phoned a downtown office of Air France in Buenos Aires, not the company's office at the airport, in the morning of May 27, and asked about the time of departure of an Air France flight. Then said 'There is a bomb on that airplane' and hung up." - For now, spies downplay French jet bomb scenario

~~

Brazil Confirms Massive Offshore Oil Field
Major brands implicated in Amazon destruction
Brazil's actions are combatting Amazon deforestation