Dominican anti-drugs chief says convicts shouldn’t keep fortunes

Santo Domingo.- National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) president Julio César Souffront on Tuesday said Dominican Republic can avert the legitimization of large drug trafficking fortunes simply enforcing current laws and international agreements, so the authorities can finally play a clear role to persecute illicit wealth.

The official referred to statements by National Anti- Laundering Committee director Fidias Aristy, who said the recently convicted Dominican kingpin Ramón Antonio del Rosario Puente (Toño Leña) could retain his properties worth millions once he serves a prison sentence of just six years in Puerto Rico. "By just enforcing Dominican laws against money laundering, we could work toward keeping those things from happening."

"We in this country are legitimizing large fortunes from drug trafficking and which we can avoid by only enforcing our laws,” Souffront said in a statement.

He said the various government agencies must join forces to fight money laundering and prevent that those convicted abroad can then recover their properties worth millions, “in an outright tort against society’s healthiest interests.”

The head of the DNCD poke with journalists after a mass officiated by Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez in the Cathedral of America, to mark the Day of the Fight Against Money Laundering.