Canada air crew caught up in ‘hellish’ Dominican Republic drugs bust begs for repatriation

A five-person Canadian airline crew caught up in a drug-trafficking investigation is begging their authorities to repatriate them after two months trapped in the Dominican Republic.

“It’s absolutely horrendous – terrible, terrible stuff we’re going through,” mentioned captain Robert Di Venanzo, who mentioned he and his crew could possibly be held for up to a 12 months whereas an investigation proceeds.

The episode started on 5 April, when the small constitution airplane belonging to Pivot Airlines was getting ready to return to Toronto Pearson airport from Punta Cana.

While doing his closing pre-flight checks, upkeep engineer Bal Krishna Dubey discovered some black duffel luggage in the upkeep bay – part of the plane that will usually by no means maintain baggage.

The crew reported the unopened luggage to Canada’s RCMP in addition to native authorities.

A pair of Dominican cops approached with sniffer canine. When they unzipped the baggage, smaller packages of a white substance wrapped in plastic fell out. In all, the eight luggage contained 200kg of cocaine, later valued at round $25m.

The crew appeared on in confusion because the officers posed for photographs for a press launch, and Di Venanzo initially thought the officers would thank them for reporting the baggage. Instead, they threw them in jail.

Di Venanzo, Dubey, and the opposite male crew members Aatif Safdar, and Alexander Rozov had been put in one cell – together with two-dozen different inmates.

The sole feminine crew member, Christina Carello, was despatched to a girls’s cell.

Over the next 9 days, inmates compelled the Canadians to sleep standing up or subsequent to the outlet in the ground serving as a bathroom, mentioned Di Venanzo.

He described being threatened by the opposite inmates whereas in jail. “They were on us, trying to extort money, telling us ‘you’re not going to be safe in here, you’re not going to be able to sleep, you’re going to get injured unless you send us money via e-transfer.’ That started from day one, and progressively got worse until day nine,” he informed the Guardian.

After the ninth day, they had been launched on bail, and at the moment are in a safe-house below 24-hour armed safety paid for by Pivot Airlines.

This will not be the primary incident of a world airline crew going through accusations of drug-trafficking out of the Dominican Republic. In 2019, two Frenchmen had been sentenced to lengthy sentences in France after attempting to deliver 680kg of cocaine house.

But whereas Di Venanzo and his crewmates are thought-about individuals of curiosity in a fancy drug trafficking case, they haven’t been charged with any crime. They keep their innocence.

Even so, Di Venanzo fears that native prosecutors try to lock them again up pending the outcomes of the investigation. The crew is anxiously awaiting a brand new court docket date to find out their fates.

“That’s the top of our top of our thoughts right now – the prospect of going back into detention in that hellish, hellish situation we were in for nine days,” he mentioned.

Eric Edmonson, CEO of Pivot Airlines, mentioned that “placing them back in jail alongside alleged narcotics criminals will put them at serious risk of harm, without the protection of the private security we have hired.” The firm is offering the crew with authorized assist.

The destiny of the seven passengers aboard the flight will not be identified; neither Di Venanzo nor a consultant for Pivot Airlines would touch upon their whereabouts or if they’ve been charged. Attempts to contact passengers have gone unanswered.

Global Affairs Canada mentioned that “officials continue to monitor the situation closely, are engaging with local authorities, and providing consular assistance”.

Global Affairs refused to offer additional particulars, however it’s identified that Dubey’s Canadian citizenship was expedited in order that he may proceed receiving consular assist. He took the oath of citizenship remotely from the Dominican Republic.

Police and prosecutors in the Dominican Republic didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Now the crew is asking the Canadian authorities to deliver them house, and have promised to take part remotely in the Dominican investigation.

In a current video posted on Pivot Airlines’ Twitter account, Carello mentioned: “If we go back to jail here, we know we may never come home.”

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