Fun in the sun becomes 'living nightmare' as Ontario man faces 'bogus' drug charges in Dominican Republic

What had been a week of fun in the sun for a Burlington, Ont., couple this winter has turned into "a living nightmare." 

Jane Wilcox said she and David Bennett, as well as another couple, were about to board a flight in the Dominican Republic to head back home from their vacation when Bennett was pulled from a security-check line at Punta Cana International Airport and sent into an interrogation room.

After much pleading, Wilcox said, she was allowed into the interrogation room, where officers showed them a picture on a phone of a bag with a tag bearing the name "Davi — D-A-V-I — Bennett … it had the PUJ airport code on it, so it came into the Punta Cana airport."

Wilcox told CBC Hamilton they later found out the bright yellow bag they were shown on the phone was "full of drugs."

While the language barrier made it difficult to communicate with the officers, Wilcox said, the couple tried to explain that everything in Bennett's itinerary —  his baggage, his passport, his boarding pass — all had "David R. Bennett. [We've] never seen that bag before."

"Through Google Translate, they [the officers] said because of the similarities of the names, 'we need to detain him for further investigation,'" Wilcox said.

"So then, I just went and sat on him," she added. "I just sat on his lap and it was kind of like, 'I can't go.' By then, the other couple was texting to say they were boarding the flight."

Wilcox and Bennett both work at the same public relations company. She said despite him being detained, he urged her to head back to Canada.

"Dave said, 'You have to go. You have to go home and you have to work for me from there. You have to get me out of this mess.

"I had like $2 US left. We just had brought them for tipping and such, so I gave him my two bucks and a charger for his phone, and gave him a big kiss," she added.

Wilcox said she next heard from Bennett after she landed at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

"He sent a picture of his own bag, the OGIO bag with his YYZ tag on it that showed David R. Bennett. He said, 'We may need this'" as evidence to back his innocence.

On March 8, Bennett called Wilcox around 12:30 p.m. ET.

"He said, 'I've been arrested for importing illegal drugs and I'm in jail, and last night was the most horrific night of my life. But I'm OK and I need your help. I need you to get on this right away. You got to connect with our RCMP friends, you got to connect with [Burlington MP] Karina Gould's office, you got to get a lawyer — we got to move into action.' So that's exactly what I did," Wilcox said.