The drug control division of the government said that in 1997 it confiscated 58.5 kilos of cocaine, arresting 16 persons in operations. Also confiscated were 6 kilos of heroine, with 17 arrests, two grams of marijuana with two arrests and 1.9 grams of crack, with one person arrested. The director of the Direccion Nacional de Control de Drogas said that the year began with the arrest on 2 January of Martin Lizardo, a 32 year old Dominican who tried to introduce through the Las Americas International Airport three kilos of cocaine in seven shampoo bottles.
