Santo Domingo.- National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) director Rolando Rosado on Wednesday revealed that Colombia’s Norte del Valle drug cartel has set up shop in the country, where the Venezuelan fugitive Luis Alberto Blanco Ascanio was its agent and had bought airplanes to ship cocaine from South America to U.S. territory.
"He was the head of the organization, the Mexicans of the Gulf cartel were receiving the drugs using telecommunications operations."
But the DNCD’s startling revelation was doused yesterday when Senator Wilton Guerrero questioned the term “national hero” which Rosado used to describe the undercover agent, Capt. Anonio Eduardo Leiva Perez, who was killed in a plane at Constanza (central) during the DNCD’s operation,
Rosado said the group was using Dominican businessmen to launder money and to buy the planes, several of which were seized in Honduras and Venezuela.
The DNCD director, speaking on 95.7FM radio, said the use of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) technology to track suspects was the key to the operation.
Trafficker turned mole?
Guerrero said Leiva was in fact a millionaire drug trafficker.
He said Perez owned more than RD$100 million in assets, linked to drug trafficking and requested an investigation into the case and the entire network of which the lawmakers says he was a member.
The legislator lauded the DNCD and the DEA for the bust, but rebuked the Rosado’s assertion that Leiva was a "national hero."
Guerrero said while holding the rank of sergeant, the Police officer built a mansion in western Independencia province, which neither the area’s richest land barons have. “He left the police, went to the United States, where he was linked to the sale of narcotics and, upon returning, he quickly rose to the rank of captain. He acquired wealth and luxury vehicles, including a Hummer."