At a time when the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) is reporting record tons of seized cocaine, El Dia reports the imminent visits of the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States for the Caribbean region and the President of Colombia. More than four tons of cocaine have been confiscated in the first half of April alone. Several Colombians have been arrested in the maritime interdiction operations.
Denise Foster has been the head of the DEA since December 2021. She is scheduled to visit on 26 April 2021.
She is based in Puerto Rico. She is the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Caribbean Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration and is responsible for the domestic offices in San Juan, Ponce, Fajardo and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and St. Thomas and St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. In addition, she is responsible for DEA’s foreign offices in Bridgetown, Barbados; Curacao, Netherlands Antilles; Georgetown, Guyana; Kingston, Jamaica; Nassau and Freeport, Bahamas; Port-Au-Prince, Haiti; Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Prior to her appointment as DEA’s Caribbean Chief, she was responsible in the Detroit offices for the Financial Investigations Team, the Tactical Diversion Squad, the Technical Operations Group, the Asset Removal Group, the Special Support Unit and the Administrative/Fiscal Unit.
Two days after the visit of Foster, the President of Colombia Iván Duque is expected to pay an official visit to the country on Thursday, 28 April 2022. Drug experts say that Colombia is where almost all of the cocaine entering the Dominican Republic and Haiti destined for the United States and Europe is produced and from where it arrives.
El Dia reports that both President Duque and DEA Agent Foster will meet with President Luis Abinader and with the head of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD), Vice Admiral Cabrera Ulloa. Foster is also scheduled to meet with the director of the National Investigations Agency (DNI) and Attorney General Miriam German Brito. Duque is also scheduled to visit the National Congress on the afternoon of Friday, 29 April.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has warned about the cartels’ tactic of increasing the volume of shipments as a way of compensating for the difficulties of transport logistics.
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El Dia
19 April 2022