In stories carried in the Listin Diario and the Diario Libre, a US Federal District court awarded two narcotics agents US$1.5 million each for violation of their rights. According to the court, agents John McLaughlin and Charles Micewski said that they had discovered a drug trafficking ring that operated in Philadelphia and New York City, in addition to other American cities. The agents had testified that the drug ring sent money to the PRD party in the Dominican Republic, with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US State Department, who favored the agenda of PRD politician Jose Francisco Pe?a Gomez. The agents said that the US federal government had allowed Pe?a Gomez to return to the Dominican Republic with US$500,000 in presumed earnings from the drug operations, after a campaign trip in 1995. At the time, Pe?a G?mez was running on the PRD ticket against Leonel Fernandez of the PLD. Shortly thereafter, the agents were taken off the case and 125 drug files were thrown out.
For more on the story that is being covered in the Philadelphia Inquirer, see http://www.philly.com/