Largest Caribbean drug case points to high level corruption in Dominican Republic :: Dominican Watchdog

The information that corrupt Dominican officials provided intelligence and operational support to the drug trafficking ring is included in the charges filed against Figueroa Agosto and Antonio “Toño Leña) del Rosario Puente by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Puerto Rico.

“The accused and his associates obtained intelligence and assistance from corrupt officials for the purpose of promoting their drug trafficking activities,” reads the indictment of Rosario, who is in custody.

In Figueroa Agosto’s case the indictment says that he and other members of his network paid corrupt authorities to avoid arrest.

“It was part of the means used by the group of José David Figueroa Agosto and his associates to make illegal payments to the police and corrupt authorities to avoid being detained,” the indictment reads.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has also charged former senior Dominican navy officers Miguel Antonio Suárez and Carlos Rossó Peña, accusing them of having used navy boats to pick up and deliver drug loads dropped offshore.

Federal authorities allege they used their rank as Dominican naval officers “to coordinate the airdrops of bundles of drugs in the coasts of the Dominican Republic and then use official ships and Dominican sailors to recover the bundles of narcotics and to bring them to land.”