The container of bananas that would have carried close to ten tons of cocaine to Antwerp, Belgium was not “contaminated” in Guatemala, according to Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arevalo. He cited sources in the Dominican Republic confirming the drugs were loaded in the Dominican Republic.
The 320-bags of drugs uncovered on 5 December 2024 in the banana shipment at the Multimodal Caucedo Port is the largest seizure of illegal cocaine in the history of the Dominican Republic, Central America and the Caribbean. It was front-page news all last week.
President Arevalo said the authorities of the Drug Control Agency (DNCD) stated that the drugs were already in the Dominican Republic and were being transferred to the container that was scheduled to go to Belgium. At the time of his statements, the Guatemalan National Anti-Corruption Commission was visiting the Presidential Palace.
In the Dominican Republic, at least 15 persons are scheduled to be arraigned on various drug-related charges, and the prosecutors are working with the courts to secure preventive custody sentences for the 15 that are currently under investigation, as reported.
Neither the DNCD nor the Justice Department have revealed the names of the persons tied to this historic case. The interdiction operation carried out by members of the DNCD, the Armed Forces and the Justice Department took 20 hours from start to finish.
By the end of last week, President Abinader was reporting that the DNCD and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were preparing a full report on the nearly ten tons of cocaine found at the Caucedo container port. Abinader told reporters that there was close collaboration between the DEA and the DNCD, as well as a long-established collaboration with authorities in Guatemala.
The case has been declared complex and has international ramifications. El Dia reports that investigators are focusing on the two containers linked to the record-breaking cocaine seizure in the Dominican Republic. One container was transported to the Multimodal Caucedo port by a truck that has been identified, along with its driver. The other container originated from Guatemala and was being used to transfer the illicit cargo destined for Belgium. In both instances, the cocaine was concealed within boxes of bananas to mimic a legitimate agricultural export.
The locally sourced container was delivered to Punta Caucedo on the day of the seizure, Thursday, December 5th, by a truck bearing a permit to enter the port facility. It was the first to be inspected by agents from the DNCD’s Joint Information and Coordination Center (CICC), who observed a group of individuals transferring sacks from the container to a refrigerated unit. This refrigerated unit was scheduled to be loaded onto a cargo ship bound for the port of Antwerp, Belgium, a major entry point for drugs into Europe.
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16 December 2024