The much celebrated helicopter that belonged to Quirino Paulino Castillo, the accused drug trafficker now on trial in New York City, went unclaimed at the public auction announced by the Attorney General’s office last week. The Santo Domingo district attorney had to call the auction “void” since non of the bidders were willing to pay the announced reserve price of US$1.8 million. The auction was held in the office of the DA, Jose Manuel Hernandez in the presence of the notary Franklin Araujo. According to Hernandez, several businessmen had called to ask about the Colibri helicopter, but nobody came up with the starting bid.
According to Paulino Castillo’s lawyer Felix Olivares, the former owner is in agreement that the apparatus be sold since it does require a hefty monthly maintenance expenditure in order to keep it in flying condition. Olivares even felt that the sale could eventally aid the family of the former army captain. Olivares told reporters that the auction of the seized property was being carried out according to the law and that he had no objections to the process.
Other properties of the accused drug trafficker, such as his farms and rice mills are being administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and technicians from the Agricultural Bank. Santo Domingo District Attorney Hernandez told the Hoy reporters that: “We are using the same people, but under our management and we have obtained better profits than those that were on the books when we seized these properties.”