According to the Public Prosecution Service, a group known as the “Malecon Cartel” has been operating for years in the country, with the complicity of agents of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) to provide cover for the illegal shipment of cocaine at Dominican airports.
One of the cases in the file occurred on 11 March, 2016, when a Laser Airlines flight arrived at Las Americas from Venezuela. As reported in El Dia, what is known is that a Venezuelan went into the bathroom and where he met a person from the DNCD Canine Unit, Hairo González, who then took the drugs and met with DNCD Canine Unit agent Luis Alberto Calzado Calzado who later drove off in a Canine Unit vehicle.
According to the file, they were supposed to hand over the drugs to Miguel Sánchez Acevedo and Joel Miguel Ozuna Jiménez, outside the cargo area, as instructed by the operational arm of the organization, Roberto Saviñón. However, they were thwarted as investigating agents arrested all of the men, as well as the mule who brought the 10 kilos of cocaine, into the country.
It is thought that the head of the gang is Venezuelan Yoel Palmar, who was arrested in Colombia, had been using Dominican airports to bring cocaine in from several South American airlines.
However, Roberto Saviñon, from Nagua, who used several different names, managed to escape from custody when he was awaiting extradition from Nayayo jail, for a drug charge in the United States. He is still at large.
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El Dia
El Dia
6 March 2018
