'So disturbing': Pivot Airlines crew shocked RCMP aware of possible cocaine shipment prior to Dominican bust

The RCMP knew about a potential cocaine shipment from the Dominican Republic to Toronto aboard a Canadian charter flight but inexplicably allowed the crew that discovered and reported the drugs to be detained for months without intervening, a W5 investigation has revealed.

The RCMP knew about a potential cocaine shipment from the Dominican Republic to Toronto aboard a Canadian charter flight but inexplicably allowed the crew that discovered and reported the drugs to be detained for months without intervening, a W5 investigation has revealed.

Through emails and a police source, W5 has learned the RCMP was seeking intel on at least two Pivot Airline passengers — with extensive ties to Alberta’s drug trade — as early as February of 2022.

Less than two months later, in April, the crew found more than 200 kilos of cocaine in the avionics bay of their plane at Punta Cana airport.

They were subsequently arrested, jailed and detained for eight months in the Dominican Republic.

“I find it surprising that [RCMP] wouldn't have intervened right away, investigation or no investigation,” said Garry Clement, a former RCMP superintendent who specializes in financial and transnational crime syndicates. “Why would you allow the crew to languish in prison? That shouldn't have happened.”

The revelations, which come months after W5’s investigation into the 12 Canadians trapped in the Dominican Republic, raises troubling questions about why authorities allowed the crew to remain under foreign detention for so long, and why more wasn’t done to advocate for their release.

“That is so disturbing,” said Pivot Airlines flight attendant Alex Roznov. “You expect more from the Canadian government.”