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Pivot Airlines says it is “deeply concerned” about the safety of its employees and that the federal government needs to do more
Publication date:
April 29, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 4 minutes reading • 27 comments The Pivot Airlines plane is sitting at the airport in the Dominican Republic after 210 kilograms of cocaine were found on board. Photo by Dirección Nacional de Control de Drogas / Twitter
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The prosecutor’s office in the Dominican Republic is appealing the decision to release on bail the crew and passengers of a Canadian charter airliner, where a 210-kilogram hiding place of cocaine was found, a legal move that the owner called “shocking”.
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Pivot Airlines said in a statement on Friday that it was “deeply concerned” about the safety of its employees and that the federal government must do more to try to ensure their safe return.
Five Pivot crew members and seven passengers were released from prison earlier this month on $ 23,000 bail and required to remain in the country until an investigation into the drug find is completed.
The airline complained about the provision, which prevents Canadians from leaving the Dominican Republic, noting that crew members discovered the smuggling secret in the plane’s “aviation compartment” and then reported it to authorities.
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Canadian pilots detained in Dominican Republic after reporting huge cocaine stocks on plane
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Canadian airliner was a front for drug smuggling, Dominican prosecutors say, despite lack of evidence
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The judge who ordered their release noted that prosecutors had not provided evidence linking the crew or passengers to cocaine.
They had already spent several days in jail waiting for bail, some of them in municipal cells with accused drug traffickers. Even after they were released, they were subjected to credible death threats, the airline said.
“In a shocking move, the prosecutor recently appealed against the court’s decision to provide bail for our crew, although there is no evidence linking them to a crime,” Pivot said in a statement.
It is now well known in the Dominican Republic that the team has stopped an attempt to smuggle drugs worth about $ 25 million on the streets of Canada, the company said. If they are returned to prison with drug offenders, they will be in serious danger without the protection of the private security guards they had from outside, Pivot said.
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“It is completely unacceptable for Canadian citizens to be arbitrarily detained for diligently reporting criminal activity,” it said. “Together with the international unions representing the crew, we warn Canadian passengers and more than 70,000 airline employees to seriously consider the risks of traveling to the Dominican Republic.
“If reporting a crime in the Dominican Republic could lead to arbitrary detention, the government should seriously consider issuing such a travel advice.
Pivot said he was grateful for the help the federal government has offered so far. He is providing consular support, and Maninder Sidhu, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie, raised the issue during a pre-planned visit to the country last week, according to Jolie’s spokeswoman.
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But “the simple fact is that Ottawa has not done enough to bring the Canadians back safely,” the statement said.
“They miss their families. They fear for their lives, as well as for their mental and physical well-being. And they want to go home. “
Meanwhile, the family of one of the passengers, Britney Wojciech-Harrison, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her legal aid, food and a possible home flight.
“She’ll either be trapped in a foreign country for a year or she’ll be trapped in a foreign country prison for a year, and that makes me sick to my stomach,” said Brandon Harrison, Wojciech Harrison’s cousin. Calgary Herald Friday.
The CRJ-100 regional plane landed in the Dominican Republic on March 31, transporting potential investors and their companions entertained by an Alberta company, Pivot said. They were supposed to leave on April 5, but just before they left, a mechanic traveling by plane found a black bag in the avionics compartment with electronic equipment.
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Pivot warned authorities in Canada and the Dominican Republic. Police then found seven more bags, all full of cocaine.
Prosecutors say during the hearing on bail that the plane and its passengers were a “facade” designed to hide the real purpose of the flight – drug smuggling in Canada.
But they said they were not claiming that anyone in the group had put cocaine on the plane, but that an unnamed extra man accompanied the crew and boarded the plane the day before he left.
Judge Francis Yojari Reyes Dillon said the fact that the crew had reported the smuggling and that there was no evidence linking them or the passengers to cocaine meant he should impose less stringent restrictions on the group than the prosecution had demanded.
One of the passengers said at the guarantee meeting that she was a guest of another man who is a potential investor in the unnamed company.
“We have just been invited to visit your beautiful country, to have fun,” she said, according to the decision. “We are absolutely horrified, we were here on vacation, we have no idea what’s going on … We all have amazing professions at home, we have families, I’m a real estate agent, I’m also a teacher.”
(Number of passengers adjusted to seven on April 29.)
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