“My point is that a business deal very wrongly became political," Alkiviades “Alki” David says

Alki David is a free man. But instead of taking time to recharge, the billionaire is gearing up for a fight.

Heir to the Coca-Cola fortune, David was recently released on drug smuggling charges at the price of EC$300,000 bail.

As previously reported by The GrowthOp, Alkiviades “Alki” David, 50, was arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Unit at the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport in St. Kitts-Nevis (SKB) on May 10. David’s friend and business partner Chase Ergen, son of billionaire Dish Network co-founder Charlie Ergen, was also arrested on suspicion of possessing cocaine. The other passengers on the plane, Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers along with his wife and mother-in-law, were not charged, although David told the Daily Mail that the women were cavity searched.

David is part of the Leventis family, who run the biggest commercial bottling facilities in Europe after a merger with beverage behemoth Coca-Cola bumped the family’s net worth to approximately £4.6 billion. David himself is estimated to be worth £2.6 billion.

In wake of the scandal, international news reports stated that 5,000 cannabis plants were found on the plane; that occupants of the plane were in possession of cocaine; and that the alleged contraband was concealed.

David disputes all the allegations.

Differing accounts

David’s rep, Owen Phillips, contacted TGO earlier this week.

“Alki and Ergen put out a press release announcing the fact they were bringing the no-THC hemp a week ahead of time,” Phillips told The GrowthOp via email. “When he landed he documented everything on SnapChat as he declared everything with customs. He believed he was following proper procedures and was working with former St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas on the entry. They were briefly detained at the airport and then released with the hemp.”

Phillips suggests that the arrest was not about cannabis at all, but politically motivated. “It was only two days later after seeing the success of their meetings with local business people and farmers that [Prime Minister Harris] ordered their arrest,” Phillips says. PM Timothy Harris is the current Prime Minister of St. Kitts-Nevis.

David says the plants on the plane “had just sprouted from seeds,” and were at most about two inches tall. He says the plants are not high-THC plants, but hemp plants. There was no cocaine on board.

The cocaine that wasn’t

Chase Ergen was arrested on suspicion of carrying cocaine. The alleged cocaine, says David, is, in fact, Ergen’s physician-prescribed ketamine—and he’s now been without it for several days. “It turned out to be the medicine for his bipolar disorder, and he’s been without [since the arrest],” he explains.

The drug was tested and the results came back negative for coke, David says, but that fact had no bearing on the state of Ergen’s liberty; he remains incarcerated on St Kitts.

“The charges that they eventually charged with was resisting arrest and swearing at a police officer,” says David. “He was [swearing], which happened while he was being grabbed and arrested.”

Despite the circumstances, David seems confident that Ergen is safe for now. “We got him into a hospital bed, so he’s in a private hospital room. And even though he’s in detention, he is comfortable,” he says.

A therapeutic dose of ketamine’s duration of action when ingested orally is roughly four to six hours. As of publication time, Ergen has been incarcerated for seven days.

Crime and punishment

When asked about his own experience in jail, David approaches the topic pragmatically.

“I knew going in what was likely to happen,” he says of his airport arrest and subsequent incarceration. “I mean, look, I’d escaped to the happy place. I went straight to opening myself up to Supreme Being golden light, and sort of staying in the zone and just going with the flow. I ended up bonding with everybody I was sharing the cell with, which was quite fun.”

David’s description of jail is what one might expect from someone whose financial position likely insulates him from the full consequences of the penal system. That said, he is both cognizant and critical of the way locals are affected by the colonial power structures of the British Virgin Islands. “I suppose all of the colonialist countries suffer from draconian laws that keep people oppressed,” David muses before referring to the current system as “abusively out of line with modern society.”

David speaks of arrests on St. Kitts casually, as though being incarcerated were an ordinary inconvenience akin to renewing a driver’s licence. “My lawyer is arrested as well, you know,” he says incidentally. “He’s a guy called Jason Hamilton, and he’s from the Hamilton family in the play Hamilton. The same guy who did all the legal precedents for the U.S. banking system!”

Swissx

David started Swissx with Ergen, a longtime friend (“we have our homes in the same village in Switzerland”). Based in Gstaad, the company produces a signature CBD oil formulation and products such as hemp-derived oils, edibles, pens and flower rich in the non-intoxicating cannabinoid.

Swissx has been working with local farmers and entrepreneurs on St Kitts, using the “massive economic development success” that Kentucky has yielded through hemp and CBD to shape its Caribbean operations.

It was Ergen who introduced David to St Kitts, and subsequently to former PM Douglas. “I really connected with the place, particularly with the leaders that I met,” David says in reference to his first visit.

For the Nigerian-born, self-described “complete non-domicile Brit living in Commonwealth countries,” he was surprised at the strong personal affinity he rapidly developed for St Kitts. “I really, really connected with the place,” says David.

In a press release, David further cites “the favorable soil and weather conditions, including an advanced culture and economy specializing in agriculture” among the reasons St Kitts appealed to Swissx.

David hopes St Kitts-Nevis can become known for its hemp industry. Currently, it enjoys a reputation as one of the most impermeable tax havens on the planet.

Changing times

With legalization spreading slowly across the continents, public perception of cannabis is changing.

“In society, before cannabis became all the rage, the rest of our community used to be downtrodden—the second-class citizens of the of the Afro-Caribbean” says David. “And now all of a sudden, it’s gentrified.”

The irony of a billionaire lamenting the gentrification of his own industry aside, David has a clear vision of what he wants to change, and how.

“Our intention is to work with the government, the courts, the banks, the business sector, and the farmers to develop a fair system that creates thousands of jobs on the island and uses Swissx’s international distribution network to make St. Kitts-Nevis cannabis products among the most sought after in the world,” he stated earlier this month. “It is our intention to quickly see a surge in the nation’s GDP that will benefit everyone. This is an economic development initiative for raising the quality of life in conjunction with local SKN Caribbean partners.”

The PM Harris issued a statement earlier this week, lashing out at Swissx’s business plans.

“Non-nationals would not be permitted to secure advantages over nationals as we set about to build out a marijuana industry,” PM Harris said in a statement. “The government has not granted any license to anyone to import plants or seeds into the Federation and that [the] administration has not had any conversation with any foreigner about setting up businesses to trade in cannabis.”

Over the phone, David is direct.

“I am fed up of listening to lawyers and listening to the system. The legal system needs to be challenged because it doesn’t work in the modern world,” he says. “There’s still so much legacy stuff that we need to clear out. And that’s apparent in places like St. Kitts.”

Moving forward

The debacle hasn’t dampened David’s enthusiasm for the island or the Swissx SKN project. If anything, he’s more motivated than ever.

He’ll be back on St Kitts in a week or so, accompanied by his legal team, to file a lawsuit against PM Harris and his government relating to his arrest and advocating for cannabis reform.

Still, David doesn’t, ultimately, have anything bad to say about anyone on St. Kitts—even the man he believes ordered his arrest.

“The people of the island are really decent people, generally decent people. I mean, even Harris is decent – even he’s a decent dude,” says David. “He just picked a fight with the wrong guy.”