Tampa, FL — The flight school owner who unwittingly trained two 9/11 hijackers has been arrested on cocaine trafficking charges in Houston, Texas.
The flight school owner, Rudi Dekkers, has been ordered by a federal judge to be held without bail pending his trial, partially because he poses a risk of flight if released on bail, reports Tampa Bay Online .
Dekkers is best known for being the chief executive officer and president of the flight instruction school, Huffman Aviation, where two of the 9/11 hijackers trained before the terrorist attacks.
While he has previously noted that he was financially ruined by the news coverage regarding his connection to the attack, Dekkers readily gave up the information when he asked to rent a small airplane at a Texas flight school recently. The general manager of The Flight School Inc., Aaron Stinson, recalled:
“The first day I met him, he told me all about his past. He said, ‘Would you ever want to do some flying for me?’ I said absolutely not. You can instantly tell when someone is doing something they probably ought not to be doing.”
WINK News notes that Dekkers has been charged with two drug conspiracy charges. Court documents have shown that he was arrested on December 2 during a federal drug sting where he represented an international drug trafficker. A federal complaint alleges that Dekkers was found to be in possession of roughly 40 pounds of cocaine and about two pounds of heroin.
The former flight school president is facing deportation charges over the arrest for drug trafficking, because he is a Dutch national and does not have legal status in the U.S., according to US Magistrate George C. Hanks Jr. The judge’s order to hold Dekkers without bail also notes that he “lacks any real financial assets and lacks gainful employment.”