'Cocaine Cargo': Eagle-eyed flight attendant on how she uncovered key evidence
Christina Carello knows she is a good flight attendant. She’s been shepherding vacationers and executives around the world for 14 years. What she didn’t know, until a sensational series of events, is that she is a pretty good detective as well.
The 33-year-old Ontario woman’s painstaking digging uncovered the fact that key evidence had been tampered with, in a legal ordeal that kept her and her airline crew trapped in the Dominican Republic for more than seven months.
The nightmare began on April 5, 2022, when the Pivot Airlines crew was making final preparations to return seven Canadian passengers on a chartered flight from Punta Cana to Toronto. Carello was on board the plane when pilot Rob Divananzo made an announcement.
"The pilot actually came out of the flight deck and did a PA, letting the passengers know that they had to deplane because they found something on the plane," Carello told W5.
The passengers disembarked and headed to a VIP lounge while Christina and the rest of the crew stayed on the tarmac. They watched in horror as a big black duffle bag, tied up in yellow rope, was removed from the plane’s avionics bay -- a compartment under the plane that houses the computer systems.
"We didn’t know what it was. It could have been a bomb," Carello said.
But there wasn’t just one bag. There were eight. And it wasn’t a bomb. It was 210 kilograms of cocaine.
Carello says heavily armed Dominican drug squad officers eventually appeared and lined the crew and the passengers up in front of the 50-seat jet.
"The one guy said, ‘I am going to put powder in the package. If it turns blue, it’s positive for cocaine.’ And it turned blue. And at that point, he said we were all being detained. Then we got put in handcuffs. We were all in shock. Nobody knew what to say," she said.
The crew spent nine days in jail and then months under virtual house arrest, with no passports, on a no-fly list, and living in fear of retribution for reporting the drugs and disrupting a cocaine pipeline to Canada.
They were never interviewed by police. And then, out of the blue, on Nov. 10, 2022, the district attorney dropped the case against them. The crew and seven passengers are now back in Canada.
For the first time, Carello is telling the story of how she discovered that someone had tampered with airport surveillance video taken the night before the drugs were found. It’s a discovery that proves neither the crew nor the passengers could have physically loaded the drugs onto the plane.
Christina Carello in her flight attendant uniform (Supplied photo)
About three months into their detention, the Dominican prosecutor shared hours of raw surveillance video of Punta Cana airport with Pivot Airline lawyers. The crew, living in their guarded safe house, was given access to the video and spent hours poring over it.
Christina, with a notepad in hand, was about four hours into watching the footage when she hit the jackpot.
“I was tired, right? So I was like ‘Am I…are my eyes crazy?’ I had to keep playing it back and forth. I’m like, something is obviously wrong there.”
While everyone else who viewed the video -- including lawyers and investigators -- had focused on the plane, Carello was looking at the timestamp. She noticed that 40 minutes had been edited out of the video.
But then she found something else. Buried deep in a misnamed file, she discovered another video from a different angle. One that was not edited. Carello yelled out to the four other crew members.
"I said, 'I need you guys to watch this and see if I’m crazy, if I am actually seeing this right.'"
In the unedited video, you can see a Punta Cana airport truck pull up close to the plane at about 3:30 am, and over the next 25 minutes, big black bags pile up and then disappear into the plane’s belly.
Lawyers for the crew and passengers confirm that hotel surveillance video shows no one left their hotel during the night.
So, who edited the airport surveillance video? Pivot Airlines CEO Eric Edmondson says if Dominican authorities were interested in finding out, it wouldn’t be a difficult investigation.
"What we have learned is that the evidence was gathered at the security office of the Punta Cana airport. The people that have edit power of that video can only use…fingerprints to edit. I think it should be a fairly easy job to figure out who did it, given the time of day and when it was edited," Edmondson said.
W5 is airing a special investigation on Saturday night at 7 p.m. into mysterious and shady events both in the Dominican Republic and in Canada surrounding attempts to smuggle 210 kg. of cocaine into Canada.
Christina Carello, meanwhile, is trying to put the nightmare in paradise behind her.
"I think I’ll take maybe a month or two [off work], but my passion is flying. I won’t leave it."
Will she ever fly back to the Dominican Republic?
"Never."
Do you have any tips on this story? Please contact Eric Szeto eric.szeto@bellmedia.ca or Avery Haines avery.haines@bellmedia.ca
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Independent stores and grocery alternatives see sales boost amid Loblaw boycott
As the month-long boycott of Loblaw-owned stores wears on, small independent food retailers and alternative grocery options say they're seeing a boost in traffic and sales.
Cannabis legalization coincided with uptick in ER visits from seniors: study
A new study has linked the legalization of cannabis with a rise in the number of Ontario seniors visiting emergency rooms.
Katy Perry sings goodbye to 'American Idol'
Katy Perry said her goodbyes on 'American Idol' after seven seasons. On Sunday night’s live 'idol' season finale, a medley of Perry's hit songs were performed, including 'Teenage Dream,' 'Dark Horse' and 'California Gurls.'
Oilers win Game 7 over Canucks, advance to Western Conference Final
The Edmonton Oilers weathered a late Vancouver Canucks charge on Monday night, beating the hosts 3-2 to win their seven-game second-round playoff series in the decisive showdown.
Microsoft's AI chatbot will 'recall' everything you do on a PC
Microsoft wants laptop users to get so comfortable with its artificial intelligence chatbot that it will remember everything you're doing on your computer and help figure out what you want to do next.
What is BORG drinking, and why is it a dangerous trend? An expert explains
If you've been to a party lately and haven't seen someone drinking a BORG, you're likely not partying with college students.
The world's best airline is paying staff a bonus of 8 months' salary
Singapore Airlines will reward its employees with a bonus worth nearly eight months of salary, a person familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday.
McGill says pro-Palestinian protest outside senior administrator's home 'crosses the line'
McGill University has denounced a pro-Palestinian protest held Sunday outside the home of one of its senior administrators.
Red Lobster probes 'endless shrimp' losses after bankruptcy filing
U.S.-based restaurant chain Red Lobster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Florida court after securing $100 million in financing commitments from its existing lenders, the company said on Sunday.
Local Spotlight
VIDEO Born without front legs, this dog has been inspiring the world for 3 years: Dresden farm owner
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
7-year-old Pokémon prodigy heading to Hawaii for world championship tournament
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
From DVDs to rehearsals: Halifax theatre company transforms Video Difference building into arts hub
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
'Another pair of eyes watching over me:' How a B.C. woman's service dog saved her from drowning
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
Starbucks fan on decades-long journey to visit every store in the world
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
'Sacred work': Sask. First Nation learning how to conduct its own underground searches
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
'It could mean a cure': Cautious optimism for groundbreaking ALS research at Western
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
B.C. musician's song catches attention of Canucks
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
'We're on standby': Team ready to help entangled right whale in Gulf of St. Lawrence
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.