NewsWhore
01-08-2009, 03:40 PM
El Dia newspaper reports that Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo, who has struck a deal with US and DR judiciary, will get to keep RD$500 million of his assets estimated at RD$1.1 billion. The state received US$14.5 million. Quirino is standing trial in New York for cocaine trafficking. Eighteen of his relatives are expected to travel to the US this month under the Federal Witness Protection Program. A New York Southern District Court prosecutor determined he was involved in drug trafficking operations from 1996 to 2004. The argument for his keeping the RD$500 million is that he had accumulated this fortune in his cross-border commercial operations prior to 1996. Prosecutor Alejandro Moscoso Segarra represented the Dominican prosecutors and Michael J. Garcia and Virginia Chavez and John O'Donnell acted for the US judiciary.
Castillo was arrested following the confiscation of 1,387 kilos of cocaine linked to him after he was arrested on 18 December 2004. The confiscated cocaine had an estimated value of US$26,400,000. Paulino was extradited to the United States for hearings in a drug-smuggling case pending in New Jersey. Castillo's extradition was the first to take place under a newly adopted criminal code in the Dominican Republic, and was the result of a joint investigation involving cooperation between the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Dominican National Drug Control Department (DNCD). The investigation was sponsored by the US Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The US vs Castillo criminal case is being heard in New York's South District Court by judge Kimba Wood.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)
Castillo was arrested following the confiscation of 1,387 kilos of cocaine linked to him after he was arrested on 18 December 2004. The confiscated cocaine had an estimated value of US$26,400,000. Paulino was extradited to the United States for hearings in a drug-smuggling case pending in New Jersey. Castillo's extradition was the first to take place under a newly adopted criminal code in the Dominican Republic, and was the result of a joint investigation involving cooperation between the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Dominican National Drug Control Department (DNCD). The investigation was sponsored by the US Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The US vs Castillo criminal case is being heard in New York's South District Court by judge Kimba Wood.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)