NewsWhore
01-27-2010, 05:10 PM
Writing in Hoy, Monetary Board member Ramon Nunez Ramirez expresses his concern that the general focus on Haiti should not divert attention from the case of drug baron Jose David Figueroa Agosto in the DR.
He states: "A drug baron escapes from a maximum security jail in Puerto Rico and establishes himself in the DR, creating a network for drug trafficking, with lovers by the heap, young high society members serving as fronts, a narco-queen escaping under the noses of the authorities, cosmetic surgeries, 30 girls in a harem, the murders of a sidekick, former colonel and a madam - supposedly for passionate motives, an ideal script for a soap opera that would have higher ratings than "Cartel de los Sapos," but it is really a tragicomedy. Tragic, because it reveals that the cancer in Dominican society has started to metastasize, and comic, because of the course that the investigations and revelations has taken.
The murderers of 3 drug traffickers, one of them a civilian Presidential aide in the previous administration, the capture of Quirino (who was admitted to the army in the previous government), the murders in Paya with the participation of members of the Navy, Figueroa Agosto's spectacular escape, Sobeida's disappearance, the escape of Spaniard Diez who had multi-million dollar investments in the east, and the murder of Gonzalez Gonzalez represent a sequence of events that reveal the level of penetration of drug trafficking in the institutions responsible for combating it.
In the case of social penetration, we are not talking about young people from slum areas led by desperation and lack of opportunities that turn them to small-scale drug trafficking. On the contrary, the Figueroa Agosto case reveals how young high society figures, with well-known surnames, who frequented the top clubs and elegant restaurants, were the ones who were blinded by the promise of instant wealth and became fronts, and laundered resources that were minuscule compared to the immense fortune that the drug baron had accumulated in a decade of successful trafficking to the United States.
Those young people who succumbed to the temptation of driving a Ferarri or a Porsche, luxurious clothes and jewelry, orgies, costly high-rise apartments are the trophies the baron obtained for his brilliant penetration into a society that was corroded by the lust for money, especially the quick buck. They should pay for their errors, but watch out, they were not the traffickers. Neither were they the ones who received and dispatched the goods. That network is intact and in it there are military accomplices and who knows which civilians. We hope that the tragedy of Haiti does not blanket and close this case with the epilogue of just a few yuppies in jail and the urban legend of sexual tales, while the drug baron and the drug trafficking network remain intact and can safely continue their business. If the soap ends that way this society will have lost a decisive battle against organized crime."
See: www.hoy.com.do/opiniones/2010/1/23/311113/Que-la-tragedia-de-Haiti... (http://www.hoy.com.do/opiniones/2010/1/23/311113/Que-la-tragedia-de-Haiti-no-haga-olvidar-el-caso-Figueroa-Agosto)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#13)
He states: "A drug baron escapes from a maximum security jail in Puerto Rico and establishes himself in the DR, creating a network for drug trafficking, with lovers by the heap, young high society members serving as fronts, a narco-queen escaping under the noses of the authorities, cosmetic surgeries, 30 girls in a harem, the murders of a sidekick, former colonel and a madam - supposedly for passionate motives, an ideal script for a soap opera that would have higher ratings than "Cartel de los Sapos," but it is really a tragicomedy. Tragic, because it reveals that the cancer in Dominican society has started to metastasize, and comic, because of the course that the investigations and revelations has taken.
The murderers of 3 drug traffickers, one of them a civilian Presidential aide in the previous administration, the capture of Quirino (who was admitted to the army in the previous government), the murders in Paya with the participation of members of the Navy, Figueroa Agosto's spectacular escape, Sobeida's disappearance, the escape of Spaniard Diez who had multi-million dollar investments in the east, and the murder of Gonzalez Gonzalez represent a sequence of events that reveal the level of penetration of drug trafficking in the institutions responsible for combating it.
In the case of social penetration, we are not talking about young people from slum areas led by desperation and lack of opportunities that turn them to small-scale drug trafficking. On the contrary, the Figueroa Agosto case reveals how young high society figures, with well-known surnames, who frequented the top clubs and elegant restaurants, were the ones who were blinded by the promise of instant wealth and became fronts, and laundered resources that were minuscule compared to the immense fortune that the drug baron had accumulated in a decade of successful trafficking to the United States.
Those young people who succumbed to the temptation of driving a Ferarri or a Porsche, luxurious clothes and jewelry, orgies, costly high-rise apartments are the trophies the baron obtained for his brilliant penetration into a society that was corroded by the lust for money, especially the quick buck. They should pay for their errors, but watch out, they were not the traffickers. Neither were they the ones who received and dispatched the goods. That network is intact and in it there are military accomplices and who knows which civilians. We hope that the tragedy of Haiti does not blanket and close this case with the epilogue of just a few yuppies in jail and the urban legend of sexual tales, while the drug baron and the drug trafficking network remain intact and can safely continue their business. If the soap ends that way this society will have lost a decisive battle against organized crime."
See: www.hoy.com.do/opiniones/2010/1/23/311113/Que-la-tragedia-de-Haiti... (http://www.hoy.com.do/opiniones/2010/1/23/311113/Que-la-tragedia-de-Haiti-no-haga-olvidar-el-caso-Figueroa-Agosto)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#13)