A report circulating on the Internet focuses on how the Dominican Republic is the victim of the huge demand for cocaine in the United States and Europe. The strategic geographical position of the country has made the Dominican Republic a connecting point between South American drug producing sources and the big markets abroad. Moreover, the dynamics of the economy make it an attractive site for drug money laundering, now in check with the recently passed Anti-Money Laundering Law.
The report especially focuses on the transit of drugs from Venezuela to Haiti to the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico or the United States and Europe. In the chapter on “The Dominican Republic and Venezuela: Cocaine Across the Caribbean”, the report states:
“For departing cocaine shipments, the Dominican Republic has a plethora of different routes to offer. For the US market, there is Puerto Rico, just 381 kilometers away. As a US territory, if smugglers can get cocaine onto this island, it makes for an easier ride to the mainland, being inside the US customs barriers. Similar dynamics apply with the French territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe for shipments into mainland Europe.158 British overseas territories like Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, as well as former colonies like Jamaica, are springboards into the United Kingdom. Yet thanks to linguistic advantages and a significant Dominican diaspora, Spain is still the principal entry point into Europe for drugs leaving the Dominican Republic. Spain has traditionally been the European nation with the highest cocaine seizures.”
The report plays on the country’s tourism slogan when it states:
“Drug traffickers have a problem exporting drugs from Venezuela. There are few commercial flights, little container shipping, no tourists and a collapsed fishing sector. But the Dominican Republic, 1,400 kilometers away, has it all. As cocaine pours largely unopposed across the border from Colombia, with production in the Andean nation at a record high, so organized crime has developed one of the region’s most prolific drug pipelines into the Dominican Republic. While there are some illegal flights that swing past, the lion’s share of the drug streaks across the Caribbean in go-fast boats. The Dominican Republic offers the drug trade some of the Caribbean’s biggest container ports, a lively tourist sector with commercial flights across the globe, and a booming property and banking sector, ready to wash narco-dollars.”
Read a summary and the full report at:
Insight Crime
Insight Crime
28 May 2018
