Another senior officer in a drug bust

SANTO DOMINGO. – Dominican Air Force lieutenant colonel Jose Espinal Muñoz, 42, on Thursday joined a growing list of senior and midline military officers linked to major drug busts.

Army Intelligence arrested Espinal in the southwestern town Neiba where they seized 409 pounds of marijuana in 49 sacks allegedly thrown out of a vehicle during a high speed chase after he and a companion failed to stop in two checkpoints on the Jimaní-Neiba road.

Antinarcotics Agency president (DNCD) Rolando Rosado praised Army Intelligence and confirmed Espinal’s arrest together with the civilian Julio Cesar Betances.

During the last few years senior midline and senior officers including colonels, have been arrested and convicted in connection with drug trafficking and murders, with the killings of seven Colombians in Paya, southern Bani, in a drug shakedown by Navy officers the most striking.