Today, President Hipolito Mejia inaugurates the Annual Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC XIX) at the Hotel Jaragua. The conference will continue until April 5. Major General Manuel Antonio Lachapelle Suero, chief of the National Drug Control Department of the DR, presides over the event. The conference theme this year is the Strengthening of Multilateral Cooperation to Fight Drug Trafficking." Here for the event is Donnie R. Marshall, director of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and delegates from 31 nations in the Americas, Australia, Japan and Thailand, in addition to Chec Republic, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain and England. The DR was host to the event in 1995. Talking to the press, Marshall recognized Dominican Republic efforts to combat drug trafficking and money laundering at a time when Haiti has become what he called "a sanctuary" for international drug traffickers. As part of the event, the governments of the DR, Haiti and US will sign an agreement to fight drug trafficking and money laundering operations. Colonel Jacobo Moquete, spokesman for the Drug Control Department (DNCD) said that Marshall handed over RD$19.1 million pesos to the Drug Council and Drug Control Department to be used for education and drug combat programs. The money is the result of sales of goods confiscated from drug trafficking operations.
