Joseph Lopez and his brother Joshua claim they were drugged and robbed while on vacation in Dubai in June
American brothers drugged, detained in Dubai return home with help from JD Vance
Joseph Lopez, a U.S. Air Force veteran who was drugged and detained in Dubai along with his brother, tells 'Fox & Friends First' about his experience.
An Ohio Air Force veteran and his brother were finally released from a United Arab Emirates (UAE) jail with the help of GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance after spending months behind bars.
Joseph Lopez and his brother, Joshua, were freed from the Dubai jail on Tuesday, ending the four-month-long legal nightmare. Joseph joined "Fox & Friends First" to discuss his reaction to his long-awaited release.
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"Land of the free, home of the brave. It definitely feels great," Lopez told Carley Shimkus on Thursday. "I'm a little bit still disassociated, to be honest with you… life doesn't totally feel real yet. I feel like I'm going to wake up from a dream… at any point in time, and I guess that's kind of where I'm at right now. It's going to take a little bit for me to process everything, honestly."
The Lopez brothers were arrested in June during their trip to the UAE. The pair were leaving a nightclub on June 2 when an Uber driver offered to take them to an "afterparty" at a hotel in the area, according to Detained in Dubai.
Joseph Lopez, an Ohio Air Force veteran and father, was detained in Dubai with his brother, Joshua, for drinking on a yacht. (Detained in Dubai)
But shortly after the party ended, the brothers were approached by someone who invited them to a yacht party. After insisting they didn't want to spend any more money, the man told them they would be his American guests.
They agreed to attend, but shortly after arriving at the boat, he said they were slapped with a more than $2,700 bill.
After they pushed back against the steep bill, Joseph said he was handed a drink and doesn't remember the rest of the night.
He woke up in the back of a police car with his brother the next morning. They were ultimately arrested and charged with assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, damaging a patrol vehicle and alcohol consumption, according to the New York Post.
Lopez insisted they were drugged and robbed.
"I think it happened to me because I was obviously I'm an American," Lopez said. "When you're in a place like Dubai, they see Americans and people see money, and basically they tried to extort me, and it didn't go the way they wanted, and I got drugged… Obviously, there's a lot that I don't remember, but basically, I was given charges that I have no memory of whatsoever."
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"I took a breathalyzer. My breathalyzer showed 0.00 by the time it was taken," he continued. "Now I have these charges I have no memory of, and these charges… some of them could potentially be 15 plus years… so it's like this is my entire life that I'm talking about here over something I have no memory of. And the people who drugged me, they were never searched for. They were never held accountable."
Lopez said the conditions in the Dubai jail were brutal, explaining that the beds were "infested with cockroaches" and they weren't given necessities like toothbrushes and soap.
"Literally, they drained me of every penny I had, put me into debt, and then eventually they sentenced us to three months in prison," Lopez said. "We went there and got in processed, and the place that we were in… there's a lot of people sleeping on the floor. The bed that I was given – I'm an American, so you have, like, passport power, so they put me in a bunk bed and the bunk beds are infested with cockroaches."
"On top of that, there's no hygiene there," he continued. "They don't give you a toothbrush. They give you a shirt. Pants. No, there's no soap, no body wash. You have to eat with your hands."
Vance worked with the State Department to secure the pair's release, according to his spokesperson, Parker Magid.
Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks to a crowd during a rally at the Berks County Fairgrounds on September 21, 2024 in Leesport, Pennsylvania. (Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
"Sen. Vance’s office has been in constant communication with the State Department, the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the United States and the constituents’ family," he told Fox News Digital. "Sen. Vance is monitoring the as-yet-unresolved legal proceedings carefully."
"JD Vance's office, the support of the world and… my communities on social media and my family, they weren't letting this go," Lopez said. "The UAE knew for a fact that… what they were getting out of me, it just wasn't worth the trouble."
Fox News' Audrey Conklin and Mollie Markowitz contributed to this report.
Bailee Hill is an associate editor with Fox News Digital. Story ideas can be sent to
