National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) chief Major General Rolando Rosado Mateo said yesterday that Mexican cartels use local groups based in Santiago to transport drug shipments. He said their activities extend throughout the country and that this explains the recent spate of contract killings. Rosado said the local groups have contacts within pharmaceutical companies to buy ephedrine and pseudoephedrine and other chemicals used to manufacture narcotics for selling to Europe. Rosado said the chemicals are used by the pharmaceutical industry to make legal drugs, but traffickers also use them to produce alkaloids.
“The hallmark of the killings shows that Mexican cartels are here, more than the Colombians. They do not have to be physically here to enforce their operations, they are aided by local groups, which is what they have been doing, mainly in the Cibao region,” he said.
The DNCD chief confirmed a claim published in El Dia on 17 July about the presence in the country of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin Guzman Loera (El Chapo Guzman). At the time, Mexican Luis Fernando Castillo Bertulucci was arrested and extradited to the US immediately. Before his extradition, Bertulucci Castillo was questioned and authorities learned that the Sinaloa cartel is working to install a route to Europe from the DR.
The comment was made during Rosado Mateo’s participation in the Meeting on Civic Safety that took place on Saturday in Santiago to discuss rising crime and measures to combat it.