DON’T DRINK THE WATER IN MEXICO, DON’T DRINK MINIBAR LIQUOR IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Bootleg liquor eyed as cause of Dominican Republic tourist deaths

By Larry Celona and Ebony Bowden

New York Post
June 13, 2019

Cops are investigating whether at least seven tourists who mysteriously died in the Dominican Republic were poisoned by counterfeit booze, The Post has learned.

Officials want to know who supplied the alcoholic beverages the victims drank in the minutes and hours before their deaths over the past year — and if the drinks had any dangerous chemicals in them, law enforcement sources said.

The FBI is assisting and will take blood samples from the dead back to its research center in Quantico, Va., a source said.

The Dominican government insists the fatalities are isolated incidents, while reps for both of the resorts where victims have died — the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Bahia Principe — described the deaths as simple accidents.

But most of the deaths bear similarities, as they involve apparently healthy adults — at least some of whom drank from their hotel room minibar before suddenly becoming gravely sick.

Five American tourists have died in mysterious circumstances on the island this year, while the family of two others who died in 2018 say they now suspect their loved ones met foul play.

Others have reported falling ill, but surviving, after drinking from their minibars.

A Post reporter at one of the resorts noted the vodka in the room had a strange, potent smell resembling pure alcohol.

Lawrence Kobilinsky, a forensic science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said the symptoms among some of the dead — including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea — were consistent with poisoning from methanol or pesticides.

Methanol is a type of alcohol not safe for humans. It is regularly used as antifreeze.

“Adulterated alcohol is usually methanol added to alcohol or just plain methanol, which is very, very toxic,” Kobilinsky said.

“It looks to me, from what I’ve heard and read, is that something was added to the drinks or bottles in those little refrigerators.”

Health inspectors from multiple agencies conducted extensive tests on the pool, air conditioning units, food areas and alcohol at two Bahia Principe resorts where three visitors died, said the Dominican Ministry of Public Health. They are waiting for the results.

“There should be no methanol at all” in the liquor, Kobilinsky said. “If it’s there, it means it’s been adulterated or put there deliberately.”

In 2017, Dominican National Police dismantled five labs used for the manufacture of alcohol not safe for human consumption.

But Hard Rock bartender Angel Santana, 43, said contamination claims were “not possible.”

“I have been working here for nine years, and everything here has always been very safe,” he said.

In a statement, the Hard Rock said clinical tests from Hospiten Bavaro, a hospital in Punta Cana, showed both deaths at its resort were caused by heart attacks.

The hotel also said it buys only “unopened products from licensed and reputable vendors.”

The first suspicious death at the Hard Rock came in July 2018, when American tourist David Harrison, 45, fell ill in his room and died. On April 14, Robert Bell Wallace, 67, also died there.

On May 25, Miranda Schaupp-Werner, 41, of Pennsylvania, died after drinking from the minibar of her room at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville resort.

Five days later, Maryland couple Nathaniel Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Day, 49 were found dead in their room at the neighboring Grand Bahia Principe.

Yvette Monique Short, of Philadelphia, died in June 2018 after drinking from her minibar at the resort.

The family of a seventh person, Leyla Cox of Staten Island, said on Thursday that she died mysteriously in her room during a trip last week. It was not clear where she was staying.