Authorities eye drug link in notorious colonel’s murder

SANTO DOMINGO.- The authorities probe the possible links to drug trafficking in the death of the notorious retired coronel Ramon Henriquez (Moncho), gunned down Saturday night by two men on a motorcycle.

The crime characteristics and Henríquez’s relations with Winston Rizik, known as "El Gallero," leads investigators to suspect it’s part of a turf war by gangs.

The two gunmen fired a hail of bullets from a 9-mm submachine gun at the ex Police colonel as he and three other men were stopped in his SUV at the busy corner of 27 Febrero and Núñez de Cáceres avenues.

Henriquez was in the front seat in the passenger side and his driver was shot once, without a life-threatening injury. The two companions in the back seat were not hurt.

The attack which led to the death of the former head of the National Police’s Secret Service during the late Joaquín Balaguer’s repressive 12 years is under investigation, while the National Drug Control Agency probes several groups drug for possible implication to the case.

contract killers have targeted Risik several times but failed, including in 2010 when several gunshots hit the vehicle he was driving heading south on Churchill avenue.

Despite having a drug trafficking conviction in the United States, the Supreme Court of denied the request for extradition on February 25, 2009, and ordered the return of all the seized properties.

The justices inexplicably ruled for his release alleging that the prosecution process had concluded, despite Rizik’s admittance of being a fugitive.

On January 2010 six gunmen killed the civil engineer Wilson Amparo Luna, who mistook him for Rizik, after a drug dealer has allegedly put a price on his head.

Days later "El Gallero" was shot in the left shoulder while walking down Churchill avenue, an attack, similar to others against Rizik and which the