Radio journalists are asking for the government to answer to inquiries on the finding of a stash of 350kg of white powder on a flight that landed at the Zaventem Brussels international airport (BRU) from the Gregorio Luperón International Airport in Puerto Plata (POP).
Barrons and Reuters had reported in April 2020 that behind the shipment are Latin American drug kingpins that attempted to flood Europe with cocaine in March in hopes of getting ahead of the coronavirus shutdown that has closed one of the trade’s biggest markets. Barron says that Belgium’s top customs official, Kristian Vanderwaeren, developed the theory after a series of what he has called extraordinary seizures.
As reported in Barrons, Vanderwaeren said that spotting 1, 1.5 or 2 kilos is not unusual, yet “never have we ever had such a quantity” in luggage. The finding occurred just before the generalized global lockdown on flights.
While the international press has covered the finding, local journalists have not been able to get comments from the Dominican authorities. Radio journalist Ricardo Nieves remarked on the El Rumbo de la Tarde talk show that he was able to confirm the air shipment. He said that a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent told him drugs had arrived to Belgium on a TUI Fly commercial flight. The pilot of the airplane was arrested in Brussels. The flight had departed from Puerto Plata International.
The luggage has not been linked to a passenger. Nieves observed that the transporting of unaccompanied luggage is only possible with the complicity of military, intelligence and drug security agents at the Puerto Plata airport. He said those in charge of the drug security at the airport are under investigation. The investigation is ongoing in the DR and abroad.
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Rumbo de la Tarde
Barrons
Reuters
15 May 2020