Dominican Republic - American tourists found dead in resorts, same cause of death, 2018/2019

[human]

If there is “free” booze available in the room, I cannot believe that people are not drinking a lot of it.

 

[Herat]

Yes. But someone said maybe a poor employee is substituting liquor in the room. Since so few die, it must not be that much of liquor changed. That is why I wonder how it could be worth it for an employee

See the math I did, above.

Maybe worth $640 a month in a country where the average labor wage paid in 2018 was $242 a month

EXTREMELY lucrative, and it has to be part of a resort-wide scam where multiple people are in on a cut of it.

 

[Herat]

If there is “free” booze available in the room, I cannot believe that people are not drinking a lot of it.

"Free booze" and "free food" is the motto of the AI.

 

[Herat]

Good info on Trip Advisor.

Now I want to know how there are glowing reports on airbnb of horrible dumps.

Nominees to Federal Trade Commission vow to investigate TripAdvisor for deleting reviews

Yeah. Trip Advisor is now a HUGE travel marketing / brokerage site that started as a wonderful travel posting board.

They still have the forum but the marketing is the business and they are shameless about it.

 

[MimosaMornings]

Seems like “free food” and “free booze” does not equal “good food” and “safe booze”.

JMO

 

[Herat]

Why are more people not dead then?

The skimmers have learned or been taught what is too much.

Tourists underreport how much they are drinking so they don't sound like alcoholics. "One drink" may be a shot or it may be the size of a cup. It looks like the spigot has no limit on it and the shot glass underneath is only an "example". I totally believe people are overpouring.

Not all of the 4 beverages are equally diluted with the contaminating alcohol.

 

[Herat]

Seems like “free food” and “free booze” does not equal “good food” and “safe booze”.

JMO

Ever notice how good a beer and hotdog taste when they are free?

 

[Annie Okie]

Read these horror stories about bootleg alcohol poisoning in Mexican resorts. They are extremely similar to the DR stories including the hospital price gouging.
Mexico resort blackouts investigation - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

I remember when this was in the news a few years ago, and I discussed this possible cause of the deaths in DR with a friend just last night!

 

[Annie Okie]

That the resorts all use the same single large open bottle in their minibar setups and that there may be a common distributor.

Is that how they do it...one bottle that they refill in the minibars?? How would anyone think it is safe to drink from an open bottle??

 

[human]

See the math I did, above.

Maybe worth $640 a month in a country where the average labor wage paid in 2018 was $242 a month

EXTREMELY lucrative, and it has to be part of a resort-wide scam where multiple people are in on a cut of it.

How much could one person get? And it is in a very few bottles spread out over several resorts?

 

[wary]

The skimmers have learned or been taught what is too much.

Tourists underreport how much they are drinking so they don't sound like alcoholics. "One drink" may be a shot or it may be the size of a cup. It looks like the spigot has no limit on it and the shot glass underneath is only an "example". I totally believe people are overpouring.

Not all of the 4 beverages are equally diluted with the contaminating alcohol.

I would guess that the batches of bootleg alcohol vary in quality, too.

 

[Herat]

How much could one person get? And it is in a very few bottles spread out over several resorts?

In hotels I have been in (not AI's and not in DR) there is a minibar person who comes in every day to restock and check on the minibar.

Now if you have an AI where there are large bottles of alcohol, you would want someone to stock the room or at least check up on it. So that minibar person has access to the unopened stock bottles and just pours off 100 cc or so from a new bottle before switching out a replacememt diluted with something else to look as if a new bottle has been added. He keeps the 100cc and just adds it to his stock. It would only take 10 rooms and he has a full bottle of legitimate booze to sell.

 

[Herat]

How much could one person get? And it is in a very few bottles spread out over several resorts?

I think every resort has someone running this kind of scam. And it all depends on how much methanol has been added and which booze the guest is drinking. For some people, they may be going through a couple of bottles during a week's stay. I think guests just severely overpour in this set-up, whereas they would not be consuming as much if it was in individual sealed 50 ml bottles like in most US minibars. 50 ml is just a bit more than one "jigger" measures

 

[Inthedetails]

In hotels I have been in (not AI's and not in DR) there is a minibar person who comes in every day to restock and check on the minibar.

Now if you have an AI where there are large bottles of alcohol, you would want someone to stock the room or at least check up on it. So that minibar person has access to the unopened stock bottles and just pours off 100 cc or so from a new bottle before switching out a replacememt diluted with something else to look as if a new bottle has been added. He keeps the 100cc and just adds it to his stock. It would only take 10 rooms and he has a full bottle of legitimate booze to sell.

Could happen.

However, I suspect that if any bootlegging is going on, it's at a higher level at the resort - a deal being made between the person who buys the liquor and the bootlegger.

But, I have no proof. (Get it, bootleg booze, proof.)

Cheers.

jmo

 

[Herat]

The Mexican alcohol scandal that left several tourists dead, or blacked out was a multiple-resort wide problem., too.

The authorities seized alcohol that was being served directly by the hotels - in their own bars. Something like 900 gallons. Not an isolated "local" problem. Authorities estimated 36% of the alcohol sold in Mexico was contaminated, and they were proud it was down from 43% which was the estimate in prior years.

Mexican authorities seize illicit alcohol in crackdown at resorts

And let's not forget that the major DR AI's are not owned locally. At least one is owned by a fellow who also runs a huge chain of Mexican AI's.

 

[Herat]

Could happen.

However, I suspect that if any bootlegging is going on, it's at a higher level at the resort - a deal being made between the person who buys the liquor and the bootlegger.

But, I have no proof. (Get it, bootleg booze, proof.)

Cheers.

jmo

Yeah, I think you might be right. There are uncanny similarities between the DR's problems and the scandal in Mexico that our Congress pretended to be interested in last year.

There were estimates that 43% of the alcohol sold in Mexico was contaminated. We're talking $$$billions in alcohol sales.

 

[Inthedetails]

The Mexican alcohol scandal that left several tourists dead, or blacked out was a multiple-resort wide problem., too.

The authorities seized alcohol that was being served directly by the hotels - in their own bars. Something like 900 gallons. Not an isolated "local" problem. Authorities estimated 36% of the alcohol sold in Mexico was contaminated, and they were proud it was down from 43% which was the estimate in prior years.

Mexican authorities seize illicit alcohol in crackdown at resorts

And let's not forget that the major DR AI's are not owned locally. At least one is owned by a fellow who also runs a huge chain of Mexican AI's.

Right. I don't think this is a case of a housekeeper switching out the liquor.

Of course people get sick on vacation, and it's easy to tell someone - oh, you overdid it. There is incentive to just get the sick tourist home and out of sight, where they won't cause the resort any hassle. And, the sick tourist wants to go home, too - so there is motivation all around to just get the sick tourist away. The other guests that arrive have no idea that someone left sick, or that someone died after drinking the same stuff they are now drinking.

And, I think much of the drinking is with mixed drinks, with a sugary mixer hiding the taste of bad alcohol. Most high-end drinkers that I know (former cocktail waitress) don't mix their liquor - the pay for the good stuff and want to taste it. Those kind of drinkers, I would guess, are not among the dead in these cases.

jmo

 

[musicaljoke]

Why are more people not dead then?

If only a few of the minibar drinks are poisoned with something like etholene glycol, then heavy drinkers might be more likely to survive than those who had only a single drink from the contaminated bottles and no other alcohol.

Alcohol, such as that found in Vodka, is an antidote. We used to use it as an IV in dogs that had lapped up antifreeze. It's a fast way to save a life.

https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/blog/antifreeze-poisoning-vodka-antidote/

 

[Herat]

Resorts sell a lot of alcohol. Are they using the same bootleg alcohol distributor?

Well AI's don't really make a profit off of selling alcohol. It's included in the "All-Inclusive" price so it's a loss for them to stock expensive liquor brands. There is a great deal of financial inducement to provide much cheaper alcohol, and from the Mexican scandal, the cheapest alcohol is that where there is fruit fermentation used and it is not distilled enough to remove the methanol that is produced. Home brewed. That's the cheap way to produce a liquor that is generally potable. If you don't distill enough, you don't remove the toxic methanol.

 

[Inthedetails]

Well AI's don't really make a profit off of selling alcohol. It's included in the "All-Inclusive" price so it's a loss for them to stock expensive liquor brands. There is a great deal of financial inducement to provide much cheaper alcohol, and from the Mexican scandal, the cheapest alcohol is that where there is fruit fermentation used and it is not distilled enough to remove the methanol that is produced. Home brewed. That's the cheap way to produce a liquor that is generally potable. If you don't distill enough, you don't remove the toxic methanol.

Yes. This.