The increasing number of military and Police officers involved in crime is a major concern for society, reports Hoy. The newspaper says that since 1991 the press has reported 45 cases of military personnel involved in drug dealing. Hoy highlights the recent case of pilot Harold Manzano Garcia who used to fly the presidential helicopter and who is now under investigation about drugs dropped over Barahona. Interviewed on the Hoy Mismo TV program, Presidential drug advisor Marino Vinicio Castillo said that the authorities had taped conversations between Manzano and persons related to drug dealing.
Likewise, on 17 September, the Police said that one of the suspects in the 6 August Paya massacre case was Major Frederick Guillermo Medina Abud. The newspaper points out the military came under scrutiny after the arrest of Colonel Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo, who was extradited to the US to stand trial in a NYC court. He was arrested for his role in transporting a 1,387-kilo cocaine shipment with Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Nin Terrerro who was also extradited. Since 2004 there has been a considerable increase in the number of arrests for drug-related charges. In most cases, military personnel are merely dismissed from the service, however, and no charges are pressed.
On 26 April 2006, then president of the National Drug Control Department, Rear Admiral Ivan Pena Castillo said that 498 of his agents had been dismissed. Another former DNCD chief, General Radhames Ramirez Ferreira said on 24 July 2008, 5,000 members had been dismissed, although as in the first case, not all were linked to drug trafficking.
Hoy comments: “Just two months after the Paya, Bani massacre, an event which allegedly involves representatives of the Executive Branch, the Police and the state prosecutors, the complicity of military and police with drug dealers seems unstoppable. A couple of examples are Lieutenant Colonel Jose Luis Pena and Sergeant Eduardo Garcia of the Air Force who were sent to trial for supposed complicity in smuggling 95 kilos of cocaine dropped over a batey near San Jose de los Llanos in San Pedro de Macoris on 10 October.
Today’s Hoy also reports comments by Presidential drug advisor lawyer Marino Vinicio Castillo who said that 200 officials from different branches of the military would be dismissed for ties to drug trafficking; that Colonel Manzano also piloted airplanes for the Benitez brothers (who are involved in a US$100 million Medicare scam), including two Benitez brothers with alleged ties to drug trafficking operations; and that he recommended that the President carry out a drastic purge of his military aides. Vincho Castillo has been warning about the penetration of drug trafficking into the country for a long time now, and for many years his warnings fell upon deaf ears.