By Shanieka Smith

Features Writer

#TheCaribbean, May 16, 2022 – A major drug bust – about 200 packages of presumed cocaine weighing about 200 kilograms were seized at the Punta Cana International Airport in the Dominican Republic on an aircraft that was set to fly from Punta Cana to Toronto. The National Directorate for Drug Control (DNCD) in the Dominican Republic said authorities allegedly found eight black packages each containing 25 packages.

As a result, a Canadian Airline crew from Canadian charter carrier Pivot Airlines, along with some passengers have been detained. The eleven detainees, nine of which are Canadians, one person from India and another from the Dominican Republic are being questioned to determine who and how each person may have been involved. Six are aircrew members, including two pilots, and five are passengers.

Pivot Airlines shared that the five crew members “discovered, reported and suspected that there was contraband in a maintenance compartment of the plane.”

In a letter to the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, the CEO of Pivot Airlines, Eric Edmonson wrote that “for more than 24 days, our crew has been subject to threats against their lives, inhumane treatment, and arbitrary detention, for dutifully reporting a crime and averting a potential aviation disaster. We are deeply concerned for their safety and are pleading with you to intervene so they may return home to their families,” Edmonson said.

The company said they are “working diligently to secure the release of our crew.” In the meantime, a series of investigations is ongoing and the detainees, though they have been bailed, will have to stay in the Dominican Republic until the matter is resolved.