
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990                   TAG: 9003280036
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: associated press
DATELINE: LYON, FRANCE                                LENGTH: Short

NOVELIST SAGAN AMONG DRUG, JET SET SENTENCED

A court Tuesday sentenced writer Francoise Sagan to a six-month suspended sentence for drug possession and 37 other people, including members of Paris' jet set, received sentences that ranged up to 15 years.

They were the first sentences handed out following a trial of 45 people arrested in connection with a drug ring that supplied literary and social personalities with heroin and cocaine.

The heaviest sentence went to Andre Trihan, described as a one-time link in the now dismantled French Connection. He received a 15-year sentence for his conviction of importing heroin into France.

Sagan, 54, never appeared in court and was not present for the sentence. She was ordered to pay about $1,750 in fines as well as $63,160 to French Customs. The sentence will go on her record, the court said. Police arrested Sagan last year after reportedly finding 300 grams of cocaine and 300 grams of heroine in her Paris home.

The writer gained an international reputation with the publication in 1954 of her first novel, "Bonjour Tristesse." She has written more than a dozen best sellers, plays and screen plays.

by CNB