Billionaire arrested with 550 cannabis plants at St Kitts airport
Greek billionaire Alki David was arrested at St Kitts airport after 550 plants he declared as hemp tested as cannabis. He was charged with possession, intent to supply and importation and released on EC$300,000 bail to return in September.
🇰🇳 Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw International Airport, St Kitts · Saint Kitts and Nevis
On 7 May 2019 a private jet carrying Alkiviades Alki David arrived at the Robert
Llewellyn Bradshaw International Airport in St Kitts.[1]David was detained at
the airport until about 1:30 p.m. that day while police, customs and agriculture
officers investigated.[1]The plant material he had brought was taken into
custody for analysis.[1]On the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions,
David was arrested on 9 May 2019.[1]He was charged with possession of
cannabis, possession with intent to supply, importation of cannabis and
importation of a restricted item.[1]He had landed with business partner Chase
Ergen and actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers.[2]Meyers was released without
sustaining any charges.[2]Police said David was arrested on May 9 and
appeared in court the following day.[3]
On arrival David had declared 550 plants as hemp in 11 crates of 50 plants each.[1]Testing found the plants were of the cannabis genus under St Kitts and
Nevis drug law.[1]
David said he had come to build relationships with farmers to grow hemp for his
Swissx business selling legal cannabis products abroad.[3]A local lawyer said
the mere possession of the marijuana plant is illegal and THC content does not
matter.[3]He was first released on $30,000 cash bail with $50,000 in
sureties, ordered to surrender travel documents and report daily to Frigate Bay
police.[3]On 14 May the court varied bail to EC$300,000 cash with EC$300,000
in sureties and returned his travel documents.[1]He was ordered to return to
court on 23 September 2019.[1]He then posted $300,000 bail before leaving the
island on Tuesday.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The widely repeated 5,000-plant and about $1.3 million figures differ from the DPP official 550-plant account; this report uses the official plant count and records no value because currency and attribution are unclear.
No weight was published for the 550 plants, so no kilograms are recorded.
The incident spans 7 May arrival and detention, 9 May arrest and 10 May first appearance; the 14 May bail variation is used as the report date as the latest step.
No court outcome after the ordered 23 September 2019 appearance was reported in the opened sources.
Chase Ergen travelled with David but the cannabis charges named only David; any later custody of Ergen on non-cannabis allegations is not counted here.
The Vanity Fair page is paywalled beyond its update paragraph; fuller enforcement details come from the DPP statement via SKNVibes and the St Kitts Nevis Observer.
Nubian Greaux of Shadwell Housing was charged with possession and cultivation of cannabis with intent to supply after police searched his home on 26 March 2026. Officers seized 271 cannabis plants and several packages of cannabis, and he was taken into custody and charged at Basseterre Police Station.
Zenhastel Odel Hector Jr. was charged with cannabis importation and possession with intent to supply after customs and police intercepted six vacuum-sealed packages of cannabis in his luggage at Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport on 22 September 2025. Following confirmation of the substance, police and customs officers formally laid five charges against him on 9 October 2025.
Keon Hewlett of College Housing, Basseterre, was arrested over cannabis brought through the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport on 2 December 2023 and charged two days later with importing cannabis and possessing it with intent to supply. The St. Kitts and Nevis Customs and Excise Department added four charges over a false declaration and attempts to evade customs.
Police seized 100 lbs of marijuana delivered to Conaree Beach on 3 March 2017 and arrested three people who retrieved it. The Coast Guard intercepted a suspected delivery fishing vessel near Nags Head but later released its two occupants and the vessel.
