The case of former Navy colonel Francisco Antonio Hiraldo Guerrero continues to dominate the headlines today, Friday 2 November. El Dia publishes the US judicial document with the details on the case. The newspaper reports that Hiraldo Guerrero is considering whether he should opt for voluntarily travel to the US or await extradition.
Hiraldo Guerrero is a former operations director at the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD), and the report says that he facilitated drug trafficking operations. He is the first on the list of top military officials who have been involved in drug trafficking operations in the DR, threatened with exposure since 2004. El Dia says that the information is on file after the plea bargain deal between the US judiciary and former army colonel Quirino Paulino Castillo, arrested in 2004. It mentions Hiraldo Guerrero’s collaboration with the local cocaine trafficking operation.
It goes on to say that on 17 December, Hiraldo Guerrero, who was a colonel in the DNCD at the time, directly warned Paulino Castillo that law enforcement agents in Barahona would intercept a shipment of approximately 1,300 kilograms of cocaine that Paulino Castillo was waiting to receive to ship to the US. The same shipment was later confiscated in the DR on 18 December, or around that date, states the report.
Moreover, it states that former Dominican Navy officer Carlos Rosso Pena (W2 in the report) was arrested for involvement in drug trafficking. Rosso Pena pleaded guilty to the federal crime in a US court and agreed to cooperate with the US authorities. He revealed that in around 2007, he and Hiraldo Guerrero worked together to help bring hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to the DR for eventual shipment to the US. They were involved with approximately 24 shipments of cocaine weighing an estimated 400 kilos per shipment.
Hiraldo Guerrero provided access to the local authorities computers capable of tracking suspicious flights in the Caribbean and offered to protect the cocaine shipments that arrived in the DR to avoid interception by the local authorities, or to ensure safe zones where the shipments could be left at sea to be picked up and transported to the DR. Reportedly, Hiraldo charged US$100,000 for helping with the drug shipments.
According to the report, Hiraldo also was paid in cocaine that he trafficked directly to the US.
As reported in Hoy, Hiraldo has asked the Supreme Court of Justice for time to consider the drug trafficking charges against him by a US court and decide whether to opt for voluntary extradition. Yesterday, Thursday 1 November, Hiraldo Guerrero was taken to the office of the president of the Penal Hall of the Supreme Court of Justice, where Judge Miriam German Brito presented the reasons for the US extradition request.
DNCD chief Major General Rolando Rosado Mateo had declared that Hiraldo was interested in voluntary extradition. Hiraldo Guerrero was given until 16 November to consider his situation. He is being held in a cell at the DNCD.
http://eldia.com.do/nacionales/2012/11/1/98249/Quirino-y-Rosso-Pena-revelan-las-implicaciones-de-Hiraldo-Guerrero