A pilot jailed for nearly eight months in the Dominican Republic for denouncing a conspiracy to export 200 kilos of cocaine warns Quebec tourists passing through Punta Cana airport.
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“I’ll never fly there again,” plagues Robert Di Venanzo of Pivot Airlines, a small Toronto-based airline. The JE team met him at the company hangar a little over a month after his release.
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The drugs were seized in sports bags hidden in the hold under the nose of Canadian company Pivot Airlines’ plane at Punta Cana airport. After eight months in detention, the crew was released without charge.
On April 5, 2022, the captain and four crew members of Pivot Airlines performed preflight checks on their twin-engine CRJ-100 scheduled to ferry their seven passengers to Toronto Airport.
However, an alarm indicated that the cargo hold under the aircraft’s nose was not closed.
- Listen to Dominic Daoust’s interview on the show by Philippe-Vincent Foisy, broadcast live daily on QUB radio :
210KG COCAINE
When they went to close it, they discovered eight gym bags containing 210kg of cocaine.
The pilot immediately informed local authorities and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of his disturbing discovery.
“We thought we were doing the right thing, we even joked with National Drug Control officers while they searched the device,” recalled Commander Di Venanzo.
Rather, Pivot Airlines employees faced jail.
- Hear crime and society chronicled with Félix Séguin, Journalist from the Quebecor Bureau of Investigation picked up at the microphone by Richard Martineau QUB radio :
GOLDEN PRISON
Crew and passengers were thrown into the overcrowded Higuey prison about fifty kilometers from Punta Cana. The Dominican judiciary confiscated their passports and prevented them from leaving the country pending a trial that will never come.
Airline employees were placed under house arrest for the next eight months. A team of armed guards had to change hiding places several times.
“We did the grocery shopping, escorted by guys with submachine guns,” recalls Mr. Di Venanzo.
“It’s a really illegal detention,” says Dominican journalist and sociologist Lisandro Torres, who points out that the suspects in this case were never charged or interrogated and that they were never brought to justice.
ALTERED EVIDENCE
It took the genius of flight attendant Christina Carello to get out of this mess.
When she viewed the airport security camera footage submitted as evidence, she noticed that 40 minutes of the security camera footage aimed at the device had been erased.
However, video from another camera showed a truck from Punta Cana Airport approaching the runway in the middle of the night while the crew was staying at the hotel.
The crew learned on November 11 that he was to be released. The prosecutor in charge of the case said there was insufficient evidence to conduct a trial.
Pilots fear Punta Cana Airport
Quebec pilots fear a landing in the Dominican Republic since the wrongful detention of a Pivot Airlines crew.
“These pilots thought they were gone for three days and then they were gone for eight months. It’s traumatic. I have no doubt they will be carrying it around for a long time,” says Air Transat Captain Dominic Daoust.
If faced with the same situation as the Toronto pilots, he would not report the presence of the drug until his plane’s wheels were off the ground.
“I’m not willing to take the risk with my crew and passengers of exposing them to all of this,” he concludes.
The Canadian Air Line Pilots Association is also concerned.
“Our position is clear: an airline pilot should never have to choose between flying safety and freedom. They did their job and were jailed for it,” said Vice President of Administration and Finance Louis-Éric Mongrain.
RISKS AT THE AIRPORT
Recent events indicate the presence of a criminal group at Punta Cana Airport.
“There is a structure in this airport that ensures that there are drugs in airplanes and suitcases… Unfortunately, there is a real risk in passing through this airport,” claims Dominican journalist and sociologist Lisandro Torres.
A Belgian national remains in prison after Punta Cana airport staff were caught packing 50 kilos of cocaine in her luggage.
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