Despite trail of deaths, U.S. fugitive thrives with Dominican “justice”

Santo Domingo.- The cockfight businessman Winston Rizik Rodriguez has become a “lucky rooster” by managing to evade several accusations against him, including an U.S. extradition request and having escaped two attempts on his life. Now his challenge is in the jurisdiction of Higüey (east) where he’ll be tried for two murders.

The man known as “El Don” and “El Gallero” (the cock-fighter) escaped a Florida prison after being convicted to 8 years in prison for drug trafficking.

According to the U.S. Marshals’ list of fugitives cited by news source eldia.com.do, Rizik is “armed and dangerous and specify refer that he has “associates” in Georgia, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Despite the U.S. conviction, the Supreme Court in a controversial ruling rejected the extradition request and ordered the return of all seized assets on February 25, 2009.

Survivor

A group of six hired killers gunned down the engineer Wilson Alejandro Amparo Luna, confusing him with Rizik, whose murder had been allegedly ordered by a narcotics trafficker. Days later “El Gallero” was shot and injured in the left shoulder while driving along Winston Churchill Av.

The authorities say that and other attacks against Rizik are the result of a turf war between drug trafficking gangs of La Romana, which has already claimed several lives, including Alfredo Rodriguez (Niño Pata Corta) and Juan Arturo Donastorg, both linked to Antonio del Rosario Puente and gunned down on the La Romana-Guaymate highway.