The National Department for the Control of Drugs (DNCD) has 2,232 kilograms of pure cocaine in storage, pending its destruction by court order. The amount of drugs in storage comes from seizures made over the past 11 months. Over 2,800 people have been arrested for possession of these drugs. The El Caribe reports that the existence of the drugs still in possession of the DNCD is in violation of Article 92 of the Law on Drugs and Controlled Substances (50-88) that requires their destruction after analysis of quality and purity of the drugs. The seizures were the result of 5,270 different operations all over the country. Also on hand are 12,338 grams of crack cocaine, 534 kilograms of cannabis, 13,923 ecstasy pills and 89 kilograms of heroin. DNCD spokesperson Bienvenido Bueno Torres told reporters that the drugs have not been incinerated because the new DNCD directors have yet to be named, and this requires the nomination of “representatives of every sector of the Dominican society: the Executive, Public Health, the Attorney General, the Foreign Ministry, the National Council on Drugs, the Armed Forces, the Police and the Catholic Church.”
Article 92 of the law says that the drugs must be incinerated in the presence of these representatives as well as members of the press and the general public and a notarized act must be drawn up and copies given to each of the different representatives. Bueno Torres pointed out that the 1,387 kilos of cocaine seized from Quirino Paulino Castillo have not been incinerated because it is possible that the United States prosecutor might need the drugs as evidence in the case against Paulino Castillo.