A Canadian airline pilot was detained in the Dominican Republic after he and his crew discovered more than 200 kilograms of cocaine on a flight bound for Toronto, seeking $16 million from the federal government and his former employer, Pivot Airlines.

The statement of claim, filed on April 5 in the Ontario Superior Court, indicated that Rob DiVenanzo is still "suffering" significant physical, emotional, and psychological harm resulting from what he endured while being stranded in the Dominican Republic for nearly eight months in 2022.

DiVenanzo, who is represented by prominent lawyer Mary Henein of Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP, said: "I will never be the same again." "It has changed me, I really feel that I am no longer as happy as I used to be. I have made great progress since I returned, but I am definitely different."

Shortly after announcing they found drugs worth nearly $25 million on their chartered plane, DiVenanzo and four other crew members were imprisoned for nine days before being released under house arrest in the Dominican Republic.

Under continued threat, they had to be moved to multiple safe houses and received round-the-clock armed guards.

He and his crew became desperate for help at some point after several months when they made a public appeal to the Prime Minister to release them. However, nothing happened.

After that, and after more than seven months and days of W5 team asking questions while on the ground in the Dominican Republic, their case was mysteriously dropped and they were allowed to return home.

The claim points to multiple failures at all levels of government in protecting and ensuring his safety, noting that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs "did almost nothing to secure Captain DiVenanzo's immediate return to Canada."

DiVenanzo said: "If this could happen to five crew members, it could happen to any member of the public." "I think the public needs to know that. And I think the public and I need answers. What happened? What went wrong? Why were we put in this situation, and why did we not receive any help from anyone other than ourselves?"

W5 reached out to Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly for comment but did not receive a response before the deadline.

RCMP "put Canadian citizens at risk"

The statement of claim also alleged that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police "put Canadian citizens at risk in a foreign country and took no reasonable steps to warn Captain DiVenanzo or protect him from this significant danger."

W5’s investigation revealed that the RCMP was aware of a potential cocaine shipment from the Dominican Republic to Toronto on a chartered flight, and the investigation also showed that the RCMP was looking for at least two passengers on the chartered flights—who had extensive ties to the drug trade in Alberta—months before the incident in the Dominican Republic.

The RCMP said it is not in a position to comment as the matter is before the courts.

The lawsuit also claimed that the former employer, Pivot Airlines, was responsible because it "did virtually no due diligence" "to ensure the safety of Pivot's employees."

Pivot Airlines received nearly $200,000 from a man named John Strudwick, the CFO of a company called Trust Capital, for a series of charter flights from Toronto to the Dominican Republic in early 2022. W5 later revealed that the company and CFO were fake, and the payments were reimbursed by a man from Edmonton.

The lawsuit indicated that Pivot Airlines "knew or should have known that Trust Capital was a fake company that chartered Pivot planes to smuggle drugs into Toronto... they knew Captain DiVenanzo was at imminent risk of arrest or serious physical harm or worse."

Pivot Airlines did not respond to W5’s request for comment by the deadline.

None of these claims have been proven in court.