American Kite Surfer's Dream Trip Turns into Nightmare in Venezuela, as Family Pleads for Release After Months in Captivity

Lucas Hunter, 37, was motorcycling and kite surfing along the northern coast of Colombia when he sent his sister Sophie a disturbing message.

“What he told me in the (WhatsApp) voice note was, “I was riding my scooter. I saw the [Venezuela] border, like some kind of checkpoint border thing from far, and I tried to reverse in my motorbike, and then I got grabbed by Venezuelan military forces,” Sophie, 30, tells PEOPLE about the Jan. 7 message. “They took me across the border. I’m being held in Venezuela, help me.’”

“I panicked,” says Sophie, who lives and works in Switzerland. “And immediately I was very, very, very, very scared. And I thought the worst could happen to him.”

She could tell, she says, that her brother was terrified.

“He’s my older brother, so I knew that he was trying not to scare me, but basically, he was scared,” she says.

Sophie and Lucas, a dual American and French citizen, had plans to travel together to Colombia until Sophie got sick. Lucas decided to go anyway because he had a non-refundable ticket, and loves kitesurfing.

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“He rented a motorbike and went from one kitesurfing spot to another one,” she says. “We were in constant communication. He sent me pictures of the kite surf camp and he told me there’s great winds, some days, no wind. He was having a great time.”

On Jan. 8, the day after she received the startling message, Sophie says her brother sent her another message letting her know that he was still at the immigration office in Venezuela and expected to be “free quite soon.”

That was the last time Sophie heard from her brother, she says.

On March 3, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that nine Americans are wrongfully detained in Venezuela.

“It is unacceptable that the regime has arrested and jailed Americans under questionable circumstances and without respect for their rights,” a State Department spokesman said in a statement to PEOPLE. “The United States continues our efforts to secure the release of any remaining Americans unjustly detained by the regime in Venezuela.”

Sophie says her brother is one of the nine that is deemed wrongfully detained.

“I received a phone call saying, “President (Donald) Trump and Secretary of State Rubio have granted the status to Lucas,” she says.

His case, she says, is now in the hands of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.

Sophie, who recently flew to Washington, D.C. to speak with government officials, is hopeful that her brother will be released soon. 

Last month, Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell announced that he secured the release of six Americans after he met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Reuters reported.

“Currently they don’t have concrete information about his whereabouts, but they’re really working hard,” says Sophie, noting the government is trying to get “proof of life” for her brother.

 “It’s quite tough,” she says about the ordeal. “I want him back as soon as I can.”