Man Jailed in Dubai Says J.D. Vance Worked “Every Day” to Bring Him and His Brother Home

Air Force Veteran Joseph Lopez (@broseph_lopez) and his brother Joshua were freed from a Dubai prison after heading to the country in an attempt to generate content in the area.

They ended up in a deranged version of The Hangover that saw them incarcerated in a foreign land. Joseph detailed how he and his brother were ultimately freed from Dubai detainment thanks to J.D. Vance, Detained in Dubai, and Americans championing his freedom.

Joseph begins his story by explaining how he and his brother were arrested in Dubai. Looking to party, they ended up getting a VIP private booth at one establishment with the full spend-your-entire-paycheck treatment. Massive trays of food and beverages, bottles, sparklers, girls coming to their section to dance and shimmy, etc.

Because there was an abundance of grub and drinks brought out to his table, Joseph told another customer at the restaurant and lounge that he was more than welcome to help himself to his smorgasbord.

Joseph was enjoying the evening until 3 a.m. hit and the lights turned on. He paid his bill, which he says was way higher than he was expecting, and the gentleman he just met invited him out to his yacht to keep the party going.

Joseph explained that he wasn't in the mood to pay for anything else, but the dude assured him he wouldn't have to pay anything and that he was bringing both Joseph and his brother as his guests.

It's at this point where Joseph made a "movie" decision — he and his brother accepted the guy's invitation and they hopped inside of an Uber with him.

The yacht was basically a nightclub on water. Once aboard, he and his brother were asked to pay a cover charge, but he pointed out the guy who brought him aboard stating that he was told he didn't have to pay anything. It was a brief misunderstanding that appeared to be quickly figured out.

Joseph says both he and his brother were brought drinks and this is where things get wild. His memories after this moment are fragmented — he remembers taking a sip of a drink and then being tied up inside a car with his brother, who was sitting beside him and leaking blood. Joseph recalls blood being on him as well.

Another memory, Joseph says, is of him being tied up and having his clothing ripped off around his legs. He was missing a toenail and recalls seeing his brother tied up beside him, too. Men wearing all black and in black balaclavas stood before them, Joseph remembers.

What he didn't remember but was ultimately revealed to him after the fact through documents and footage, was that he and his brother kicked the window out of the car they were in.

They managed to escape the vehicle and ran inside of a grocery store. Footage from the store shows Joseph standing in front of an aisle of chips, clearly not in a conscious state. Someone must've drugged him and his brother's drink, putting them into a subconscious state. The footage shows someone getting into an altercation with his brother.

Joseph and his brother ended up fighting the dudes who were giving his brother problems, and once it was settled, they walked away. Following this, he says that they were detained by police who attempted to try and get him and his brother to admit they knowingly indulged in taking illegal substances.

Joseph averred multiple times to authorities that this wasn't the case. He said that something was slipped inside of his drink and it was evident both he and his brother weren't conscious, but goes on to state he believes the police were trying to set him up. That's because they refused to test their blood alcohol levels or look for any signs of drugs until day four of their detainment.

By waiting 96 hours, Joseph said they knew anything that was in their system wouldn't show up in a toxicology report. To this day, Joseph said his phone is still in Dubai as the police refused to hand it back to him. And while his brother had his returned, the pair noticed something amiss with his photo roll — all of the selfies his brother snapped while aboard the yacht mysteriously vanished.

One issue that still plagues Joseph, he says, is that he has "no idea" how he and his brother were able to get off of the yacht. He says that he assumes the two "fought their way off" but he has zero recollection of doing so. Joseph also added that a common misconception about Dubai is that alcohol is illegal — it isn't. He mentions that getting liquor licenses in the country is an easy process and booze is so common it's sold at water parks.

So how did Joseph and his brother eventually make it out of Dubai? After being detained for 60 days in the country, he says that he reached out to Radha Stirling, a woman who runs Detained in Dubai, a program that helps Americans who are imprisoned abroad. Stirling worked with J.D. Vance's team and helped get eyes on Joseph and his brother's case.

Once Vance's people caught wind of Joseph's case, he says they were in contact with the UAE "pretty much every single day" to put pressure on authorities to have him released. Their 15+ years prison sentences were reduced to a three-month sentence and while they were in processing on the fifth day of their term, Joseph and his brother were told they were going home.

Joseph said he heard one officer on the phone mention to someone on the other line that they needed "two tickets immediately" for both him and his brother to go back to the states.

The TikToker states that while he didn't know exactly what happened, everything changed once Vance's team spoke with UAE authorities after they went to prison.

At the end of this particular clip, he gave a huge shout-out to J.D. Vance and his team for looking after a couple of Americans abroad along with the "thousands" of Americans calling politicians to put eyes on their case.