Santo Domingo. – The National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) yesterday busted an international drug trafficking ring based in the country’s icon resort Casa de Campo, La Romana (east), seized 122 kilos of cocaine on a boat headed to Puerto Rico.
It arrested 29 people, among them five Puerto Ricans and 17 Russians, the latter the crew of a ship where the drug would’ve been shipped and one Dominican and one Colombian.
In the resort the authorities also seized two villas, two apartments, a yacht, a freighter used to transport fuel and molasses to Caribbean islands, and an airplane.
“This structure had its operation between the capital and La Romana, where from a private pier an amount of cocaine was sent and money was received from the United States,” said DNCD spokesman Roberto Lebrón.
He said “Operation earthquake” had the ring under surveillance for a year, and the detainees are being questioned in DNCD headquarters.
Lebrón said the arrests were closely coordinated with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The Dominicans detained are Cinthia Catherine Paula Valerio, Scarle Crisoris Gross de los Santos, Yanira Martínez Pión, Félix María de la Cruz and Genito Toribio Custodio
Puerto Rican headed the ring
The DNCD said the Puerto Rican Omar Alberto Diaz Pavón is the owner of the villas and head of the network; Eduardo Larios Sanchez is the owner of the boat and the yatch where the cocaine was found; Alex Ocasio, pilot of American Eagle airlines and of the airplane retained at the La Romana International Airport, and Edwin Nieves Lozado, identified at the contact to buy the drug.
“That network receive drug from South America, especially Colombia, to hold it in the East region, and from there, sent it to Puerto Rico. The money received from those transactions was used to buy properties worth millions, especially villas and apartments,” Lebrón said.