UNC Professor Paul Frampton convicted of drug smuggling in Argentina

UNC Professor Paul Frampton convicted of drug smuggling in Argentina

Paul Frampton (ABC News)

Esteemed UNC Professor Paul Frampton convicted of drug smuggling in Argentina and has been sentenced to 4 years and eight months in jail.

Paul Frampton is an educated man.  He could be described as “book smart”. Very book smart.  He is an Oxford educated, University of North Carolina (UNC) Professor, who has been at UNC since 1996.

He has published numerous articles on particle phenomenology.

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Many would describe him as brilliant.

For all of his very high intelligence, the 68 year old wants you to believe that he was also very gullible and the victim of a scam.  A romantic con. A “Honeypot” victim.

Frampton claims that he met Denise Milani on the internet.  Milani is a bikini model that won Miss World Bikini in 2007.

They began some type of online relationship for 11 weeks, and he then flew to La Paz, Bolivia earlier in the year to meet her.

When he arrived in Bolivia, Frampton claims that Milani was apparently nowhere to be found.

Instead, he says he was met by a man at the hotel he had checked-in to, who said that he worked for Milani.

This man handed Frampton a suitcase and asked him to take it to her in Argentina.

Paul Frampton took the suitcase with him to Argentina and says that he could not find Milani.

Apparently, the UNC Professor did not think it was odd that some strange person met him at the hotel in a foreign country, no less, handed him a suitcase and asked him to travel to yet another county in South America to meet Ms. Milani.

He was then told to fly to Brussels and supposedly waited at the airport for over 30 hours for the person that he thought was Milano to send him a ticket.

When he had not heard from the bikini model after a day and a half, he decided to leave, taking the suitcase the stranger gave him.

That’s when he was busted on January 23, 2012 at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He says he was conned by gangsters.

I think most people understand that it can happen.  Anyone can get scammed, however, other evidence that the Argentinian authorities claim to have seems to indicate that the Professor knew what was going on.

The issue in Frampton’s case is that Argentinean authorities allegedly presented evidence in court of text messages that Frampton sent to the cell phone of the person he thought was Milani.  The text messages, as reported by ABC News, allegedly said,

I’m worried about the sniffer dogs

I’m looking after you’re special little suitcase

In Bolivia this is worth nothing, in Europe it’s worth millions

Those are very incriminating text messages.

There were hand scrawled calculations figuring out the cost of the drugs; although the professor says that he did that after he was busted.

In the past, Frampton  allegedly traveled to China to meet another internet “paramour”.  He was supposed to get married to the woman, sight unseen.

He did meet the woman but she cancelled the wedding after she met him.

His ex-wife described him a “naive fool”.

She also said,  “He lives in a theoretical world of particles”.

Because he lives “in his head”, according to his wife, he would probably do OK in jail.

Frampton’s $107,000 salary at UNC has been cut off since March 1, and he wanted it reinstated.

Unbelievably, Frampton wanted a raise.  He had great methodology behind his reasons, however, it seems that his timing was wildly inappropriate.

Frampton’s team was allegedly going to defend him by saying that he has “schizoid personality”, something that makes him extremely gullible.

Gullible or not; the purported text messages did not help his case.

Milano says she never communicated with the professor.

Frampton has been reported to have been released from jail and placed under house arrest for health reasons. He  suffers from high blood pressure and lung problems.

It is not known if he will serve his full 4 years and eight months sentence under house arrest or moved back to jail, once his health issues are under control.

Related articles

• Court in Argentina Convicts UNC Professor of Drug Smuggling
• British scientist caught smuggling two kilos of cocaine
• 68-Year-Old Professor Of Physics Convicted Of Smuggling Cocaine
• Paul Frampton hit by 56-month drugs sentence

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