Clave newspaper reports on the details of transcripts of the prosecutor general's interrogation of the girlfriend of the son of Arturo del Tiempo, under arrest in Spain for alleged cocaine trafficking. Ruth Sanchez Vargas said that Police Chief Rafael Guillermo Guzman Fermin used to socialize with Arturo del Tiempo Marques and his family in Casa de Campo. She said the Police chief enjoyed a close relationship with Del Tiempo. In an interview with the Corripio media group on 7 July, the Police chief had denied any links with Arturo del Tiempo and said that he had not purchased an apartment at the Atiemar Tower. The luxury high-rise apartment building in Santo Domingo is at the center of an investigation of suspected money laundering and drug money financing.
Sanchez Vargas said that she spent time with the Police chief at a golf tournament in La Romana. She said that her boyfriend told her that the Guzman Fermin family planned to live in Torre Atiemar and that they would pay US$900,000 for the apartment.
The transcripts are from the interrogation dated 25 March by Wendy Lora Perez, and the coordinator of the Department of Trafficking and Drug Consumption Bienvenido Fabian Melo, and Army Major Roberto Soto Felix from the National Drug Control Department Center of Information and Joint Coordination.
She said she met the chief of security of the Atiemar Tower, and visited the property at least 12 times. She said he was known as "Juancho el Loco," but his name was Juan or Jose Estevez. Clave said that Juan Estevez is a lieutenant colonel in the Police who worked in San Francisco with Guzman when the latter was Police commander for the northeastern region. He was in charge of security for the Guzman Fermin family.
The newspaper also reports that after the authorities confiscated the tower, the Superintendence of Banks took over the La Piedra exchange house in Los Mina in Santo Domingo, for illegal operations. The exchange house belongs to Estevez.
El Dia newspaper reported that when the authorities visited the exchange house, Colonel Estevez had already closed it. Clave points out that curiously the exchange house has a facade with the same stonework that was used at the Atiemar Tower. Estevez argued that he had closed the exchange house because it was no longer profitable.
Clave reports that the chief of the Police was not available for comments on the transcript.
After revelations in the Spanish press, the chief of the police admitted that Del Tiempo had been awarded honorary membership in the Police.
www.clavedigital.com/App_Pages/Noticias/Noticias.aspx?id_Articulo=30261
http://www.publico.es/internacional/...ntraba/palacio
http://www.7dias.com.do/app/article....mmentMode=true

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