Two agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration paid former Captain Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo a five-minute visit to his cell at the Direccion Nacional de Control de Drogas (DNCD), where they expressed that the US government will seek his extradition. This information is according to his lawyer Carlos Balcacer, who demanded that his client be sent to a Dominican jail, either at the Palacio de Justicia de Ciudad Nueva or Najayo.
Lawyer Vinicio Castilo Seman felt the former officer should be extradited and judged in the US. “We believe that the Dominican judiciary does not have the sufficient strength to investigate and judge this case given the political connections of the drug smugglers,” he stated. He believes that the only way that justice could be achieved is if Paulino Castillo is extradited to the US and judged according to the US laws for having allegedly introduced tons of cocaine to the DR.
He said that this case is a challenge for the local justice system because it would need to prove its ability to investigate political connections. If tried abroad, Paulino could reveal his political and business connections. He said that Paulino Castillo was able to carry out all his transactions and export drugs to the US “protected by an oversaturated impunity provided by politicians.”
The lawyer said that despite President Hipolito Mejia’s awareness of the fact that the accused was directing drug smuggling operations, he instructed his brother-in-law to swear Paulino in as the chief of his re-election campaign in the province Elias Pina. The lawyer believes that President Mejia and some of his closest collaborators could possibly be investigated in the US in this case of international drug trafficking.
Paulino was arrested with his wife Belkis Ubri Medrano concurrently with the arrest of National Police Lieutenant Colonel Lidio Arturo Nin, who was at the time chief of the provincial jail of Azua, and his chauffer and cousin Tirso Cuevas Nin on Duarte highway. They were transporting 1,200 packages of cocaine.