Businessman Winston Risik Rodriguez visited the offices of El Dia yesterday, Monday 11 November after the newspaper published an editorial asking why the government had not arrested him and another man who was named by the Police as linked to drug trafficking. He maintains he is innocent of accusations of heading a powerful drug trafficking gang allegedly operating in the east. He told reporters that the problem began 20 years ago when he was arrested because drug traffickers had carried out a transaction at a restaurant he owned in the US. He denies having anything to do with them. He said that one of the participants said he had heard everything and the US authorities accused him of conspiring sentencing him to eight years. Risik said he did three years of community service and then escaped to the Dominican Republic. He said when he arrived here in 1995 he was arrested for the same charges and served five years of jail while waiting for his extradition that was not granted by the Supreme Court of Justice.
The businessman said that when in jail, he met Pascual Cabrera, who is the other man named by the Police as the head of a gang of drug traffickers that is said to be in conflict with Risik. He said that they had developed a friendship in jail, but had a disagreement after their release because of a cockfighting match that destroyed their friendship and that is why Cabrera has tried to kill him on at least two occasions.
Risik told El Dia that he has been the victim, but the authorities have tried to make him the victimizer. He told El Dia that it is not true the Police is looking for him as he has only one home address. He criticized the fact that the past two chiefs of the Police have linked him to drug trafficking when there is no case against him.