Top Dominican drug traffickers get a ‘slap in the hand” in the U.S.’

Santo Domingo.- Extradition to the U.S. struck fear in Latin America drug traffickers for many years since it ensured tough sentences in maximum security prisons, isolated from their criminal rings and lost fortunes.

“So much so that to prevent his extradition, Colombia’s Pablo Escobar and his Medellin Cartel unleashed one of the bloodiest wars ever declared by a criminal group against a State,” outlet eldia.com.do reports.

The U.S. however seems to have abandoned that strategy against major Dominican drug traffickers, which have even opted for extradition on expectation of “slap in the hand” punishment and the possibility of retaining much of their fortunes.

Among Dominican Republic’s top drug traffickers who’ve managed light sentences and kept an important part of their wealth figure Quirino Ernesto Paulino, Ernesto Bienvenido Guevara Díaz, Antonio de el Rosario Puente, Carlos Rossó Peña and Miguel Antonio Suárez Silfa.

The group, the outlet says, “has emerged on a coach from U.S. justice, with major concessions, ranging from few years in prison to keeping part of their fortunes produced from drug trafficking."