A Canadian chartered airliner and its occupants were acting as a front for smuggling drugs into Toronto, Dominican Republic prosecutors alleged recently after a 210-kilogram stash of cocaine was found on the plane.
© Provided by National PostThe Pivot Airlines plane sits at the Dominican Republic airport after 210 kilograms of cocaine were found stashed on board.
They urged a judge to keep the crew and passengers in custody for at least 12 months as the case is investigated, charging they were part of an elaborate trafficking “faade.”
But lawyers for the Public Ministry offered up little actual evidence implicating the mostly Canadian group, who were arrested soon after the contraband was found hidden inside the jet’s “avionics bay.”
In fact, one of those crew members discovered the contraband and another reported the find, the judge hearing the group’s bail hearing acknowledged in a written, Spanish-language decision obtained by the National Post and translated.
Judge Francis Yojary Reyes Dilone ordered them released on bail, and they were freed just after the Easter weekend, though must stay in the Dominican Republic until the investigation is done.
Pivot Airlines has been lobbying for their crew to be allowed to leave the country and say they face ongoing danger from drug traffickers until they can leave.
The judge’s decision sheds some light on the prosecution’s allegations against the Canadians, but little on the basis for those charges.