Drug-laced Jamaican coconut bread cost Disney Cruise worker his job, lawsuit said

A former Disney Cruise Line employee said he lost his job after he ate his co-worker’s Jamaican Coconut Bread secretly laced with marijuana on the ship, according to a lawsuit.

Elmer Marin, 45, who worked for the cruise line for a decade, said he was wrongfully terminated for drug use after eating the coconut bread on board the Disney Wonder in 2020, the lawsuit said.

“His life was turned upside down by this incident and the unjust, draconian way Disney handled the situation after my client was served drugged contaminated food,” his attorney Luis Perez said in a statement this week. “My client is no longer employable in the cruise line industry after Disney tarnished his name and reputation . He tried to get work with other cruise lines but was unable to do so.”

Disney Cruise Line did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Disney is seeking to get Marin’s Brevard County lawsuit transferred over to U.S. District Court, according to court filings from this month. Marin’s 2023 lawsuit is suing over emotional distress, breach of contract, and other charges. 

Marin, a stateroom host, ate the bread not knowing there were drugs in it on Feb. 18, 2020, the lawsuit said. He got sick. He couldn’t breathe and his vision got blurry, the lawsuit said.

He “required emergency medical treatment and overnight hospitalization onboard the ship, and to make a terrifying situation even worse, Disney thereafter shamed and humiliated (him) by unjustifiably terminating him on February 23, 2020, ostensibly because he tested positive for the drugs which he had unknowingly consumed when ingested the ‘Jamaican Coconut Bread,'” the lawsuit said.

When the ship docked in New Orleans, Marin’s lawsuit said police interviewed him and his personal belongings were searched — “all of which revealed nothing,” the lawsuit said. Marin accused Disney of not properly investigating the other two or more crew members who ate the bread bought when the Wonder docked in Falmouth, Jamaica.

The incident ended Marin’s 10-year career at Disney Cruise Line where he had a good record and no previous prior drug or alcohol problems, the lawsuit said, adding he had passed all his past testings and medical examinations through his employer.

After that, Marin was blacklisted from working in the cruise industry, the lawsuit claimed.

“He worked hard as a passenger stateroom attendant and enjoyed working for Disney,” Perez said. “He needed his job and had planned on working for Disney for many years to provide for his wife and young children.”

Florida Politics covered another lawsuit against Disney Cruise Line last month after a daughter accused the company of not doing enough to help her father when he had a stroke on the open sea.