Police agents and Justice Department members have arrested a man implicated in the so-called “Cibao Cartel” at the Cibao International Airport, and seized the sum of US$307,000 in cash. Cristian Robison Garcia was arrested while trying to leave the airport in a pickup truck inside of which the money was found in a black package. Robison Garcia will be taken shortly from Santiago to the city of Samana where he will be subject to an interrogation. His arrest was confirmed by the District Attorney of Samana, Juan Medina, who said that he was possibly involved in the shipment of 157 kilograms of cocaine that were confiscated in a boat in Samana some months ago.
Diario Libre said that the magistrate reported that the investigations into the seizure of the drugs are quite advanced and they would disclose some details of the case in the next few hours. In the meantime, it was revealed that the Appeals Court of San Francisco de Macoris changed the restraining measures in favor of a lawyer, Fausto Ramirez Collado, implicated in the case of the drug shipment. The defendant was released on a RD$3.0 million bail bond, with a requirement to report periodically to the judicial authorities and is subject to strict travel restrictions. Other defendants in the case include businessman Ivan Miguel Tineo Paulino, Luis Alvarez, Nadin Peguero Bezi who are in preventive custody for at least a year. According to the arraignment, the role of the lawyer, Ramirez Collado, was to supply and obtain the money to finance the international drug trafficking operations. The prosecutors also say that the lawyer was responsible for bringing the money from the United States with “mules” and later delivering it to dealers and money exchange houses.
Recently, National Drug Control Department head Major General Rolando Rosado Mateo said that the agency’s intelligence service was after the assets of the members of the “Cibao Cartel”, and he said that as soon as they were located they would be seized and revealed to the public.