Excerpt:
Prosecutors highlighted “about $10,000 — $8,000 in U.S. dollars and then $2,000 in foreign currency that was found on his person,” CNN correspondent Danny Freeman said following the court hearing.
“Also they said that he had a Faraday bag,” which blocks cell signals, a move that prosecutors alleged marked “an indication of criminal sophistication and reason they should hold him on bail,” Freeman continued.
After prosecutors made the claims, Mangione said he would like to “correct two things.”
“I don’t know where any of that money came from — I’m not sure if it was planted. And also, that bag was waterproof, so I don’t know about criminal sophistication,” the suspect said in a statement that suggested police framed him.
The play would have been to go to Canada, take the ferry to St. Pierre and Michelon, Then book a flight to France. Going to France from France through Montreal, you’d not have to clear passport control in Canada on your way to France. Although there is a non-stop from St. Pierre direct to Paris. If he didn’t have a bad back, he could have joined the FFL and gotten a new identity and French citizenship. From France, he could go anywhere.