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Long Island man recounts 18 months in Dominican Republic prison for something that's not a crime in most of the U.S.

Long Island man recounts 18 months in Dominican Republic prison
Long Island man recounts 18 months in Dominican Republic prison 03:34

VALLEY STREAM, N.Y. -- A Long Island man is home after serving a harrowing year-and-a-half ordeal behind bars in a Caribbean prison.

He faced 20 years for something that wouldn't even be a crime in most of the United States.

Mike Wittenberg's Caribbean nightmare

Cold air is welcome to Mike Wittenberg. It's how freedom feels after being locked up for 18 months.

"The conditions were horrific," Wittenberg said. "If you're not threatened by the inmates, you're threatened by the guards. I was hysterical every day. I cried day in and day out."

His nightmare began with a business idea. When COVID shut down the conventions he ran for the vape industry, the now-43-year-old Valley Stream dad launched networking events.

"We said let's go to a cool resort in the Caribbean for a week," Wittenberg said.

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The event Mike Wittenberg took part in back in 2023. CBS News New York

He had done something similar seven prior times with no problems. That is, until a July 2023 event at a Dominican Republic resort.

"I got out of a pool with my vendors, went to go sign for a package, I got 50 ARs pointed at me," Wittenberg said.

He had signed for a 700-pound pallet filled with promotional items, but Dominican officials sniffed out pills, gummies, and cartridges containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Wittenberg said it was 10 pounds of hemp-derived products that are federally legal in the U.S.

"Did I know for sure that stuff was in the pallet? No. But i thought it was a possibility. Was I stupid or ignorant? Yeah. I wasn't guilty. There is a difference," Wittenberg said. "I've done major conventions with these products for 10 years in major convention centers across the country."

Wittenberg claims the vendors shipped their own goods and that he had warned them to heed local laws.

"I said don't ship anything that is illegal in the country," Wittenberg said. "I never touched a box. I never packed a box."

He faced 20 years for narcotics trafficking

What followed, he said, was an 18-month nightmare of corruption and desperation.

"I was being charged with international narcotics trafficking. The penalty for that in the Dominican Republic is 20 years," Wittenberg said.

While he fought to stay alive, his mother was battling on two fronts -- constant trips to the DR in between chemo for cancer.

"I didn't know what was going to happen," Ann Wittenberg said.

She said she "absolutely" felt her son's life was in jeopardy.

"Knives, fighting every day there, people getting killed. It was horrible," Ann Wittenberg said.

She said she emailed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and President Joe Biden.

"We got everybody and nobody helped us," she said. "'It's a narcotic issue. We can't get involved.'"

"The United States embassy didn't do anything except come see me once a month to make sure I wasn't dead," Mike Wittenberg said. "I'm an American citizen. I've never been in a pair of handcuffs in my life. They treated me like I was just another criminal that was probably trafficking drugs."

He said he lost more than 100 pounds due to limited water and food.

"It was terrible. I didn't eat anything," Mike Wittenberg said. "There were rats, cockroaches. It was a filthy place. I was sitting there with what the United States would call a misdemeanor, sharing a cell with people convicted of multiple murders."

His eventual release came with a warning

After a quarter of a million dollars in payments to lawyers and a letter his mother wrote the Dominican president, Mike Wittenberg was offered 18 months if he pled guilty, with a warning at a time where cannabis laws vary dramatically by nation.

"Be careful. If you decide to go, don't do anything that might be wrong, or questioned," Mike Wittenberg said.

He said he he will go back to the event business but not the vape industry, adding, "I'm burning my passport and I'm staying in the United States."

Mike Wittenberg lost his house and business, but said he has what matters -- his freedom and family.

A spokesperson for the State Department told CBS News New York that U.S. citizens are subject to the laws of the foreign countries they visit. The American government can provide assistance, but cannot effect their release.  

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