A report in El Dia today, Monday 24 November 2014, focuses on the good life drug traffickers can continue to enjoy after returning to the Dominican Republic following deportation from the US where their cases were heard.
El Dia reports that the people who had risked their lives to ensure the arrest of the criminals are now experiencing frustration and concern for their safety, and they feel cheated.
Most of the big criminals are free after serving minimal jail terms, and return as billionaires with fortunes that have been washed by the same court proceedings and have no cases pending with the Dominican judiciary. This is the case of figures including Jose Arismendy Almonte Pena (Joselito.com), the Bourdier brothers, Ramon Elias Tavarez Lebren (a court ordered his assets worth more than RD$200 million to be returned to him), Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo and associates, Bienvenido Ernesto Guevara Diaz, five of the eight who were convicted in the Jose Figueroa Agosto case, and former Naval officer Carlos Valdez Beltre (Calitos Atropu).
El Dia reported that the group has recovered assets worth more than RD$4 billion now at their full disposal.
El Dia reports that by the end of 2015, others who will be released to enjoy their drug-secured fortunes are Antonio del Rosario Puente (Tono Lena) and Yubel Enrique Mendez Mendez (Oreganito). In the case of Oreganito, the Attorney General office assessed his fortune at RD$5 billion-RD$10 billion.
As reported, in the case of Paulino Castillo, when he was extradited to the US in 2005, the Dominican authorities had valued his fortune at RD$1.2 billion and in the plea bargain with the US judiciary he delivered assets worth US$14.5 million or RD$520 million, meaning that he is still owns RD$600 million.
Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito has urged Congress to pass the Domain Extinction Bill to end these situations where criminals keep illicitly acquired wealth.
Narcos están libres y con fortunas, beneficiados por pactos con EE. UU