US$67.5M drug scandal widens: Another Police official arrested

Santo Domingo.- Less than two days after the scandal over “vanished” drugs broke in the National Police Narcotics Div. (Dican), official sources revealed the arrest in Santiago of the Dican’s chief in Dajabón on marijuana possession today Wednesday.

Police spokesman Jacobo Mateo said Capt. Gilberto Antonio Abreu Guzman, 34, was arrested in Santiago, together with Starlin Castillo, 33, with 24 pounds of marijuana in three bales, seized in a Toyota Corolla.

Mateo tweeted that Police chief Manuel Castro regrets that "officers of the institution falling into the terrible temptations of drug trafficking, but we must act."

In a later statement, the Police said it seized a 9mm pistol, a shotgun, four cell phones and two National Police bullet-proof vests from the detainees.

Abreu’s arrest comes just two days after the alleged disappearance of drugs valued at more than US$67.0 million at the Dican.