Agents nab more than $300,000-Canadian, arrest three

Santo Domingo.- The National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) on Sunday seized more than $300,000 Canadian dollars and arrested three men who allegedly form part of a network which launders large sums of money from illegal activities, especially drug trafficking.

The DNCD said Johnny Joseline Cruz, Eddy Diaz Liriano and Armando Montes de Oca were taken to its headquarters for questioning into the Canadian currency, whose current value is close to the U.S. dollar.

"The money was brought to the country by Montes de Oca, the person which the DNCD and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration were investigating during several months," the agency said in a statement.

The men were arrested aboard a Honda vehicle after an anonymous tip, that "a controlled delivery" was about to take place, but DNCD spokesman Roberto Lebron gave no further details, noting that "it’s an ongoing investigation."

Lebron said before receiving the money, Antonio Tejada and Jesus Santos were arrested with Montes de Oca in a Toyota SUV, in which agents found an unspecified amount of marijuana. "It’s a case under investigation because we’re talking about an unusual movement of money. Nobody moves a sum of that magnitude in that way, that’s to say similar to a legal transaction. That’s why the matter is in the hands of the Financial Investigation Division."