The District Attorney prosecutors resumed investigations into the case against Quirino Paulino Castillo regarding drug trafficking operations. Paulino Castillo (known as Quirino or the Don) was arrested following the confiscation of a 1,387 kilo cargo of cocaine linked to him. Paulino was extradited to the US for hearings of a drug smuggling case pending in New Jersey.
The prosecutors interviewed former minister of the Armed Forces, retired Major General Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez and former chief of the army, General Radhames Zorrilla Ozuna.
As reported in the Listin Diario, Quirino entered the army with the rank of mayor sargeant on 9 March 2002. Five months later, under then Army chief, General Manuel Ernesto Polanco Salvador cancelled him on 1 August 2002. One year later, on 10 September 2003, after Zorrilla Ozuna replaced Polanco Salvador, Quirino was reinstated to the army, being promoted to first lieutenant of the army by memorandum 32070 signed by Minister Soto Jimenez following instructions from President Hipolito Mejia. The army record of Quirino indicates that Zorrilla Ozuna recommended that he be readmitted to the army and promoted. Soto Jimenez told the prosecutors that he did not personally know Quirino Paulino.
In April 2004, Major General Furcy Castellanos, chief of intelligence of the Armed Forces (J2) revealed that the armed forces alerted President Mejia that the US Drug Enforcement Administration was on Paulino Castillo’s trail. He explained that Mejia did not adhere to the recommendations of removing him reportedly because of the proximity of the May election.
District Attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero said that Doris Pujols Ortiz, the judge in charge of the Quirino Paulino Castillo case has extended the investigative process term from three months to 14 months given the complexity of the case. Paulino’s fortune is estimated at RD$2 billion.