Major General Rolando Rosado Mateo, head of the National Drug Control Department, has announced that staff at the Puerto Plata and San Jose de Ocoa agencies has been fired. El Dia reports that one of the dismissed officers holds the rank of army captain and was head of operations of the DNCD inspectors department in Puerto Plata. This follows the recent firings of all the DNCD staff in Samana and Boca Chica. Rosado reports that two more internal departments are being investigated for their ties to drug trafficking and extortion from drug traffickers in return for allowing them to operate their sales points.
"The message is clear. The rats cannot work here. Whoever caves in and associates with criminals damages the DNCD, the Armed Forces and the Police. All have to respond to Justice," said Rosado.
Senator Wilton Guerrero has said that the DNCD itself is a drug cartel, but that recently there had been progress in the reduction of the stranglehold the drug traffickers have over the organization.

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