The National Drug Control Agency has announced the dismantling of an international network that recruited drug couriers known as “mules” in Colombia, Venezuela and Peru to transport drugs to the Dominican Republic, where local people were contracted to transport the drugs to Europe and the United States. The smugglers swallowed the pellets of drugs that they transported in their stomachs.
As reported by the DNCD, several young men in San Pedro de Macoris were recruited. The DNCD says that an intelligence operation led to the arrest of four Dominicans, including the group leader who was identified as 58-year old Carlos Manuel Martinez Vizcaino (El Viejo).
DNCD spokesman Miguel Medina said that the young men were paid US$700 to US$1,000 per trip, in addition to travel and accommodation expenses.
The young Dominicans would be recruited here and travel to Colombia to receive the drugs in their stomachs. The network would also recruit people who already had visas or US residency to transport the drugs to the US in the same way.
The DNCD said that El Viejo, who lived in Residencial Villa Real II, Altos de Arroyo Hondo, was arrested in La Venta de Herrera on 14 August 2014. He was deported to the DR from the United States on 5 January 2011, after serving a six-year sentence for drug trafficking.
The DNCD said that the mules included Carlos Leandro Colon Arias, an electronic engineer, who was arrested at Las Americas International Airport on 25 May 2014 after returning from Colombia. He was found to have 27 liquid heroin packages weighing 770 grams in his stomach. He expelled them at the Armed Forces Central Hospital in Santo Domingo.
Another mule was identified as 19-year old Johnny Omar Sanchez Giron (Moreno), who was arrested at Las Americas International Airport when attempting to travel to New York City on 17 May 2014 with 34 packages of cocaine weighing 380 grams in his stomach.
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