US District Judge Kimba Wood will hear the drug smuggling case against former army captain Quirino Paulino Castillo today. Quirino Paulino Castillo’s lawyer Lawrence Ruggieri has said he will be looking at the technicalities in the prosecution’s case. Commenting on key evidence in taped conversations, he said, as reported in El Caribe, “I want to be sure that if those tapes exist, they were made legitimately,” he said in reference to supposed evidence that prosecutor David Berardinelli will present. Berardinelli has stated that they have a taped conversation made on 23 September 2003 between Eduardito (Luis Eduardo Rodriguez Cordero) and Paulino Castillo, during which the cocaine shipment for distribution in New York was agreed upon.
In today’s hearing, Berardinelli is expected to present photographs, taped conversations and other evidence to support accusations of drug smuggling against Paulino Castillo. In jail in the US pending the Manhattan hearing, in addition to Paulino Castillo are Vladimir Garcia Jimenez and Eduardo Rodriguez Cordero.
Paulino Castillo was arrested on 18 December and linked to a confiscated cargo of 1,387 kilos of cocaine in a bust made on Duarte highway. Paulino was extradited to the US on 19 February. Eduardito Rodriguez and Vladimir Garcia were arrested in Manhattan on 3 March.