A report in today’s El Dia, Friday, 9 January 2015 reveals more details of the Police Anti-Narcotics Department (Dican) case of missing drugs and suspected police and prosecutor corruption. It states that the authorities investigating the case have proof of three cases. The first involved 250 kilos of cocaine that were confiscated in Miches but never delivered to the authorities, and instead distributed among the law enforcement officers who took part in the operation. The second took place in Boca Chica, where Dican agents seized 33 kilos of cocaine and distributed them among themselves instead of reporting them. The largest case of unreported drugs, nevertheless was the more recent 950 kilos confiscated from a house in Ensanche Isabelita in Santo Domingo East, involving high-ranking officers. At the time, representing the District Attorney Officer, prosecutors Maximo Diaz and Leonidas Suarez filed a report stating that no drugs had been found. As reported, officers acting in the case that maintained ties with heads of micro-trafficking gangs helped place the drugs on the domestic market.
The case, nevertheless, opened the investigation because National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) agents were following it with support from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). At the time reports from the prosecutors and the Dican stated that no drugs had been found in the search. The DEA and DNCD viewed the reports as suspicious because they had contradictory intelligence information. During a search of the house, neighbors told agents that Dican agents had removed the drugs they found. Subsequently, when the owners of the seized drugs learned that the operation had not been carried out by officers acting in the name of the law, they contacted these asking them to share part of the drugs with them so they could meet commitments to their suppliers. As reported, the law enforcement officers are thought to have returned 250 kilos of cocaine, but kept the rest for resale. The investigators are trying to find out which of the micro-trafficking structures received the drugs for resale.
As reported, Police chief Major General Manuel Castro Castillo began an internal investigation into the situation with a commission of generals, but when the magnitude of the case became apparent he asked the Attorney General Office to head the investigation.
President Danilo Medina received a first report at a meeting headed by Presidency Minister Gustavo Montalvo, Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito, Defense Minister William Munoz, chief of the Police Manuel Castro Castillo, DNCD president Julio Cesar Souffront, and National Department of Investigations director Sigfrido Pared Perez. The President subsequently received a second, more detailed report from Attorney General Dominguez Brito, and a third from DNCD chief Souffront Velazquez.
Diario Libre reports that several law enforcement agents who are involved have returned assets to avoid being prosecuted in the case.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2015/01/09/i959901_implicados-caso-dican-entregan-dinero-bienes.html