El Dia reports that the Venezuelan drug capo, 44-year old Yoel Antonio Palmar Vergel, arrested in Colombia, used the Dominican Republic as the bridge to transport drugs to Europe and the United states and also to launder drug money.
He had purchased large properties in the Dominican Republic to launder the money, including the Malecon Casino Palace in the Malecon Center on the Malecon. Recent investigations show that he bribed the security force at Dominican airports to carry out his operations. The Malecon Casino Palace was shut down by the Ministry of Hacienda on 21 December 2017. It had been operating since 2015. The top officers of the casino were Yoel Antonio Palmar himself and Jaime Sued Pichardo. It operated as Mi Llanura SRL. The same company has other gambling operations in other locations in Santo Dmingo, Santiago, Puerto Plata, La Vega, Punta Cana, Tamboril (Santiago), San Pedro de Macoris and La Romana, as reported in El Dia.
El Universal newspaper of Venezuela reports that the drug network that operated from Colombia via Venezuela to the Dominican Republic was headed by Yoel Palmar. The new Venezuelan prosecutor accused his predecessor, Luisa Ortega Diaz, of protecting Palmar from judicial investigations. He said she ordered that investigations not continue in any case in which Palmar was involved.
Read more in Spanish:
El Universal
El Dia
26 February 2017
