Argentine woman, airport employee sentenced to 10 years for drug trafficking

La Altagracia.- A court in the province of La Altagracia Province sentenced an Argentine woman and a Dominican man to 10 years in prison after finding them guilty of attempting to traffic cocaine through Punta Cana International Airport. The defendants, Florencia Milagros Otaduy, 31, and Manuel Alejandro D’Oleo Cuello, were also ordered to pay a fine of 250,000 pesos and forfeit items seized during the investigation.

According to prosecutors, Otaduy was arrested on July 31, 2023, by agents of the Dirección Nacional de Control de Drogas (DNCD) while attempting to leave the country with eight packages of cocaine weighing 4.33 kilograms. Authorities said the drugs were hidden inside a suitcase in chocolate boxes. Laboratory tests conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Forenses confirmed that the seized substance was cocaine.

Investigators determined that D’Oleo Cuello, who worked as a gardening operator at the airport, delivered the bag containing the drugs to Otaduy after she had passed security checks. Security cameras reportedly captured him entering the terminal with the bag and meeting with the woman before the attempted handoff. The case was prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office under violations of Law 50-88 on Drugs and Controlled Substances, and the sentence was issued by a panel of judges from the Collegiate Court of La Altagracia. The man will serve his sentence at the Centro de Corrección y Rehabilitación Anamuya, while the woman will remain at the women’s detention facility in Higüey.