Dominican Republic Drug Traffickers in America

November 5, 2018 Crime , OTHER

By

Ricardo Swire

The United States has dedicated several law enforcement resources via Mexico’s Mérida Initiative and the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI). Since 2008 monies were also allocated to the Northern Triangle or El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala’s national security apparatuses. As a result the popular cocaine air-bridge from Venezuela to Honduras was interrupted and more drug consignments pushed through Caribbean waters. Such maritime trafficking incorporates offshore commercial container vessels inshore and high-speed watercraft.

In 2010 America established the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), but its lacklustre resources failed to curb CARICOM’s expanding narcotics trade. Today the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) aggressively pursues foreign Drug Trafficking Organizations and associated high-level non-nationals. The US State Department recently identified the Dominican Republic (DR), on the Caribbean island Hispaniola, as the tropical region’s principal narcotic transit nation for US destined drug shipments.

DR trafficking groups have a longstanding presence along America’s East Coast. Lately synthetic opioid fentanyl’s popularity has tormented decision makers in most American cities. Heroin laced with fentanyl is one main way the drug is sold and consumed. During May 2018 law enforcers in western Nebraska stopped more than fifty kilos of fentanyl. On Wednesday May 02nd 2018 two of the DR’s most wanted traffickers were intercepted in Methuen, Massachusetts, by DEA Field Division Taskforce Special Agents.

From December 6, 2016 to May 2, 2017 one DR trafficker arranged fentanyl sales, while the other managed deliveries to New Hampshire clients in north-eastern US. One enforcement sting accommodated the DR duo’s four fentanyl sales in Nashua, New Hampshire, made to an undercover DEA agent. The operation’s search warrant, issued for the DR national’s Methuen address, included two adjacent apartments on the building’s second floor. Agents seized US$941,994 cash, two guns, ninety grams of fentanyl, plus twenty grams of heroin and thirty pounds of marijuana.

The DR detainees additionally coordinated a multimillion dollar fentanyl shipment from Mexico. The Jalisco Cartel aka CJNG oversees fentanyl laced heroin supplies to America. In Mexico’s Michoacan state CJNG operatives battle rivals from Los Viagras Cartel for synthetic drugs market dominance. On Monday October 22, 2018 another DR related trafficking quest was foiled by law enforcers in Boston. The US Justice Department noted two DR traffickers, known as “Cunao” and his business partner José A. Rodríguez, were stopped by police manning a roadblock. Officers found two kilos of fentanyl hidden inside the car.

A follow-up search of the DR national’s US residence revealed thirty additional kilos fentanyl. Collectively both portions were worth US$30 million. Since June 2018 the two DR traffickers were named on the US’ Most Wanted List. The DEA’s El Dorado Taskforce reports catalogued how the duo functioned as couriers for an invisible Mexican drug cartel. The DEA’s 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment stressed that both Mexican and Colombian criminal organizations utilize low profile DR traffickers to transport and distribute fentanyl, cocaine and heroin within US cities.