The trial of Larry Davis, a US businessman who is accused of international drug smuggling, began in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, 7 March 2017, as reported in a Houston news online service. The 44-year old American has been awaiting trial for a year. His friends and family insist that the case is based on flimsy evidence and uncorroborated hearsay.
Starting in 2008, Larry Davis and his father owned a fuel-trading boat that ferried diesel from areas where it was plentiful and sold it at a profit in other parts of the Caribbean. After Davis’ mother was diagnosed in 2015 with terminal leukemia, the family decided to put the business on hold.
In late January 2016, Davis and his father leased their boat to Joseph Hynds, the son of a powerful businessman well-known in the fuel-trading industry, and Hynds hired his own captain and crew.
A month later, Davis got a call from a shipping agent in the Dominican Republic and was informed that the boat was being inspected. Davis booked a roundtrip flight and flew to Santo Domingo early the next morning, his lawyers said.
Reportedly unknown to Davis, Dominican authorities had found 986 kilos of cocaine and 3 kilos of heroin on the leased boat. When Davis saw a news article mentioning the seizure, he tried to meet with Dominican investigators, whom his lawyers said declined to speak with him.
Davis was arrested March 5, 2016, at the Santo Domingo airport as he arrived for his scheduled return flight.
Friends and family say the 44-year-old father had no way of knowing the Honduran, who has since disappeared, who leased his boat would use it to smuggle nearly 1,000 kilograms of cocaine.
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Texas Chronicle
