A yacht captain is accusing former Spurs controlling owner Peter M. Holt of pressuring him to smuggle drugs across international borders — an allegation Holt calls fabricated and part of an extortion scheme.

In dueling lawsuits, Jay Jones alleges he was pressured over months to obtain narcotics abroad and bring them into the United States aboard Holt’s yachts, while Holt denies the allegations and counters that Jones invented the claims to demand millions of dollars. Holt, whose family owns Holt Cat, also alleges Jones improperly took funds from a Holt-affiliated company for personal use.

Jones, who worked for Holt for more than a decade, describes a relationship that evolved from trusted employee to what he calls a coerced participant in illegal activity. He says he feared losing his job and jeopardizing his captain’s license if he refused the requests.

His complaint describes trips to obtain Xanax and Provigil, instructions to carry drugs for Holt on commercial flights through Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, and directions to hide them in the engine room of one of Holt’s yachts or aboard his private jet to avoid detection. Jones says he objected to the requests and ultimately resigned after his refusals were ignored, citing concerns about Holt’s drug use.

RELATED: Who owns the Spurs? Billionaires, tech giants and prominent local families all have a stake.

Holt’s lawsuit paints a sharply different picture. It says Jones was a highly paid employee who resigned after failing to obtain required certifications and being denied a raise, then attempted to leverage Holt’s struggles with addiction into what Holt calls a “shakedown.”

Holt also alleges Jones “diverted” over $1 million to himself and his family from a Holt company, and that Jones used his position to provide family and friends with what the lawsuit describes as “effectively free vacations” on Holt’s yacht.

The two sides attempted to mediate the dispute last week. Holt’s lawsuit alleges Jones threatened to go public with his claims unless he was paid millions, an assertion Jones’ counsel disputes.

Holt filed his eight-page complaint Wednesday in Blanco County, where he lives. 

“It is a sad fact of life these days that prominent people like Peter Holt suffer from these types of allegations, which he explicitly states are false,” said Holt attorney Charles “Chip” Babcock of Houston.

Jones, who lives in Nueces County, filed a 21-page suit Thursday in Harris County.

“Once Captain Jones refused to accept the almost million dollars that they offered him to keep quiet, they ran to court and filed a trumped-up suit thinking they would scare or intimidate him,” said Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, who represents Jones. “That was a gross miscalculation.”

“Captain Jones worked for Holt for more than eleven years,” Buzbee added. “He was loyal and faithful. It is a shame that they would make up claims against someone who was a trusted employee.”

Holt, 78, led the Spurs ownership group for two decades as chairman  and CEO of Spurs Sports & Entertainment before turning over control to his then-wife, Julianna Hawn Holt, in 2016. The organization is now led by their son, Peter J. Holt, who also serves as CEO of Holt Cat, the nation’s largest Caterpillar equipment dealership.

Peter J. Holt and his sister, Corrina Holt Richter, took control of Holt Cat from their father in 2017.

Holt Cat is named as a defendant in Jones’ lawsuit. A company spokeswoman said it does not comment on pending litigation.

Also named in both lawsuits is HIPMH LP, formerly known as ECF Properties LP, which owns the yacht Adventurer.

In his complaint, Holt says Jones’ employment began to unravel after the company acquired a larger vessel, Adventurer II, for which Jones allegedly lacked the required certification. Holt says he paid $6,000 for training, but Jones failed to complete the coursework.

SA Inc.: An insider’s guide to business in San Antonio

After Jones resigned in January, Holt says he offered him a severance package worth nearly $400,000, including a year’s salary and benefits.

Months later, Holt says he received a letter from Jones claiming he had been constructively discharged due to a hostile work environment and had been asked to smuggle marijuana and obtain drugs without a prescription.

Holt’s lawsuit characterizes those claims as part of an effort to exploit his past struggles with addiction.

“We call this what it is: extortion,” the suit states, adding that Holt has “publicly struggled with addiction and PTSD” since his service in the Vietnam War in 1967-68. He served as a rifleman with the 25th Infantry Division, earning a Silver Star, three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart for bravery in combat. 

A forensic audit was launched after Jones’ allegations surfaced and has thus far uncovered “substantial monies obtained by Jones from ECF,” Holt says in his suit.

Jones’ lawsuit provides a detailed account of how he says the requests to obtain and transport drugs unfolded, describing a pattern that escalated over time and, he says, placed him at risk of criminal prosecution.

In the complaint, Jones alleges Holt’s addiction to narcotics “consumes his every action,” an allegation that underpins his account of repeated requests to obtain and transport drugs.

In one early incident, Jones says he was sent to retrieve what he was told was luggage from a storage facility in Florida, only to discover a cooler filled with marijuana, which he says he felt compelled to transport back to Texas.

Years later, Jones alleges the requests resumed and intensified, with instructions to obtain Xanax and Provigil from pharmacies in Costa Rica using his passport and bring the drugs back into the United States. Holt, in his lawsuit, says he made a single request for the medications and that they were prescribed to him.

Jones says he struggled with the decision, weighing the risk of arrest, the loss of his Coast Guard captain’s license and his livelihood before ultimately complying under pressure from his employer.

The complaint includes photos that Jones says show drugs he was directed to transport.

In one voicemail cited in the lawsuit, Holt allegedly asked him to “stash it and hide it” and to obtain “as much as you can get,” including “100 pills, ten packs or more.”

Jones also alleges that Holt contacted him after resigning, asking him to arrange for drugs or connect him with someone who could, even as the two sides discussed a potential severance agreement.

Jones is seeking unspecified damages for lost pay, mental anguish and damage to his career on claims of wrongful termination and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Holt is seeking more than $1 million, including reimbursement for expenses he alleges Jones improperly charged to the company. He has sued Jones on claims of fraud, theft and breach of fiduciary.

Both lawsuits are pending.