DHL heir and convicted drug trafficker Larry Hillbroom Jr is set to leave today, December 28, to undergo addiction therapy, according to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
Ernestine Rengiil, Attorney General said, “Hillbroom is scheduled to leave tomorrow morning (December 28) for his rehab in California.”
Hillbroom was convicted in June of trafficking methamphetamine here and went on the run in July after failing a drugs test while on probation.
In September, instead of a jail term for violation of probation, Associate Justice Lourdes Materne issued a judgment allowing Hillbroom to leave Palau for treatment because of his wealth and the lack rehabilitation programs on the island.
Prosecutors asked for a 30-year sentence but Materne said Hillbroom’s wealth meant he was in a unique position to seek treatment that was unavailable in Palau.
Hillbroom was supposed to meet the probation officer yesterday to go through drug testing.
If he is clear edwith the drug testing, he will leave early morning for Los Angeles, California for a six-month rehabilitation program at an institution called Recover Integrity, added the AGO.
In the sentencing in September, Materne warned Hillbroom that he would go to jail for 30 years if he did not complete the rehabilitation program or failed another drug test after returning to Palau.
Hillbroom, who holds US and Palau passports, is the son of the late Larry Hillblom, co-founder of the freight giant DHL, although their surnames are spelled differently.
He is one of four illegitimate children sired by Hillblom and successfully sued for a share of the billionaire businessman’s fortune after Hillblom died in a plane crash in 1995.
Hillbroom who sued to live in the United States was visiting Palau in 2016 when he was arrested for allegedly arranging for two women to smuggle methamphetamine from the Philippines to Palau.
After admitting to drug trafficking in June he was sentenced to 10 years’ probation and fined $50,000 as part of a plea bargain.
The AGO has to agree to the choice of addiction program before he is allowed to leave. (Bernadette H. Carreon)