Francis Rauli Velasquez Minyetty was arrested yesterday at a hotel in eastern Santo Domingo. The authorities rounded up some 30 other people in the United States, Holland, Switzerland and Germany, accused of being involved in a huge operation that shipped “Ecstasy”, an easy-to-make ‘designer drug’, to Europe and the United States. In the process, 50 kilograms of cocaine were found as well as almost one million pills of what is commonly called “E”. According to local DNCD officials, Velasquez Minyetty recruited down-and-out European tourists to transport the drug to Holland. He worked the beaches of Boca Chica, Puerto Plata and Punta Cana to find his “mules.” The officials called Velasquez Minyetty the “head of one of the main international ecstasy networks.” The million pill stash was found in Holland by members of the Dutch USD unit. Velasquez Minyetty, also known as “Jabao” or “Rubio”, was well-known to the authorities in the United States and the Dominican Republic. The “mules” he recruited were supplied with special false-bottomed baggage that holds between 50,000 and 100,000 pills. Pills costing ?0.35 to make are sold on the street for US$20 in the United States. According to the DNCD, the drug baron had operated within the international drug world. Ten years ago he had been arrested on drug charges in New York and deported to the Dominican Republic. He allegedly used false passports to travel to Europe and other places.