A few hours before his arrest, alleged drug lord Quirino Paulino Castillo, who is accused of moving 1,387 kilograms of pure cocaine for transshipment to the United States, among other things, received three phone calls warning him of his pending capture. This news was revealed to Listin Diario reporters by Santo Domingo district attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero. According to a taped message, Quirino was warned: “The wheels are returning with a person I don’t know,” just moments before his arrest by DNCD (Local DEA) agents. The first call came from one of the people responsible for guarding the cocaine shipment who told him that the drug had been seized on the Duarte Highway. The second call came from somebody who formed part of the investigation, and, according to Hernandez, this just proves how deep the complicity and protection by some of the former authorities went. The person assigned to protect the truck carrying the shipment of cocaine and another person, still unidentified, were traveling in a white vehicle and got away as the DNCD agents decided to pursue the shipment itself.