NewsWhore
03-30-2010, 04:20 PM
National District prosecutor Alejandro Moscoso Segarra has confirmed that Puerto Rican drug baron Jose David Figueroa Agosto and his accomplice Sobeida Felix Morel are the people who were filmed in a security camera video that is circulating showing the two fugitives from Dominican and Puerto Rican justice shopping at a mall in San Juan.
He confirmed that staff from his office traveled to Puerto Rico and showed photos of the two fugitives to employees at the store where the video was taken, and store clerks confirmed the identities of the two people caught on the store security videos.
Moscoso Segarra called on the Puerto Rican authorities to step up the search for the couple sought for drug trafficking and money laundering.
Figueroa Agosto escaped from a Puerto Rican jail in 1999, where he was serving a 209-year sentence. He openly flaunted his wealth in the DR, where he operated a prosperous drug trafficking ring in apparent complicity with local authorities.
The couple is being sought after US$4.6 million and incriminating computers and cell phones were confiscated from a vehicle parked at a Santo Domingo apartment block on 3 September 2009. At the time, Figueroa Agosto managed to "escape" once again.
In the case, the authorities have only one suspect in custody who is linked to the ring. El Dia reports today that paid hit men have removed others who could have been helpful in identifying members of the network.
The only person under arrest is Julio Cesar Mercedes, accused of buying the pick-up in which a shipment of 293 kilos of cocaine and several weapons were found in an operation when the authorities were on the look out for Omar Antigua Polanco, one of Figueroa's close aides. Antigua Polanco was able to escape the pursuit, but was murdered in the Carrefour supermarket parking lot on 31 January.
Previously, former colonel Jose Amado Gonzalez was murdered by 13 gunshots while arriving at his home off Avenida Anacaona. He had been due for questioning three days later in connection with the case. And this week, another man linked to the drug network, Gabriel Arias Castillo, was murdered in La Victoria jail.
El Dia writes that almost everyone who has been arrested in the Figueroa Agosto case was involved in laundering assets, not in the drug trafficking ring itself.
El Dia editorializes today: "There are more than enough reasons to suspect that there have been and there are structures that protect drug traffickers within the National Drug Control Department (DNCD), which reduces its effectiveness."
It asks many questions, including what the DNCD did after discovering a shipment of 935 kilos of cocaine in November that would have been sent to Valencia, Spain, and knowing who were responsible for the shipment, according to statements from the DNCD director at the time.
The shipment was consigned to Arturo Del Tiempo who was later caught with a shipment of 1,200 kilos of cocaine in Spain in March. Del Tiempo was the promoter of the Torre Atiemar, a luxury high-rise apartment building in which the father of the chief of the Police purchased an apartment.
El Dia asks: "Why was the suspect allowed to make more exports? And concludes: "The country needs answers."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/... (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/jose-figueroa-agosto-myst_n_504639.html)
http://www.lasprovincias.es/valencia/20091106/local/sucesos/... (http://www.lasprovincias.es/valencia/20091106/local/sucesos/confiscan-santo-domingo-alijo-200911061831.html)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#12)
He confirmed that staff from his office traveled to Puerto Rico and showed photos of the two fugitives to employees at the store where the video was taken, and store clerks confirmed the identities of the two people caught on the store security videos.
Moscoso Segarra called on the Puerto Rican authorities to step up the search for the couple sought for drug trafficking and money laundering.
Figueroa Agosto escaped from a Puerto Rican jail in 1999, where he was serving a 209-year sentence. He openly flaunted his wealth in the DR, where he operated a prosperous drug trafficking ring in apparent complicity with local authorities.
The couple is being sought after US$4.6 million and incriminating computers and cell phones were confiscated from a vehicle parked at a Santo Domingo apartment block on 3 September 2009. At the time, Figueroa Agosto managed to "escape" once again.
In the case, the authorities have only one suspect in custody who is linked to the ring. El Dia reports today that paid hit men have removed others who could have been helpful in identifying members of the network.
The only person under arrest is Julio Cesar Mercedes, accused of buying the pick-up in which a shipment of 293 kilos of cocaine and several weapons were found in an operation when the authorities were on the look out for Omar Antigua Polanco, one of Figueroa's close aides. Antigua Polanco was able to escape the pursuit, but was murdered in the Carrefour supermarket parking lot on 31 January.
Previously, former colonel Jose Amado Gonzalez was murdered by 13 gunshots while arriving at his home off Avenida Anacaona. He had been due for questioning three days later in connection with the case. And this week, another man linked to the drug network, Gabriel Arias Castillo, was murdered in La Victoria jail.
El Dia writes that almost everyone who has been arrested in the Figueroa Agosto case was involved in laundering assets, not in the drug trafficking ring itself.
El Dia editorializes today: "There are more than enough reasons to suspect that there have been and there are structures that protect drug traffickers within the National Drug Control Department (DNCD), which reduces its effectiveness."
It asks many questions, including what the DNCD did after discovering a shipment of 935 kilos of cocaine in November that would have been sent to Valencia, Spain, and knowing who were responsible for the shipment, according to statements from the DNCD director at the time.
The shipment was consigned to Arturo Del Tiempo who was later caught with a shipment of 1,200 kilos of cocaine in Spain in March. Del Tiempo was the promoter of the Torre Atiemar, a luxury high-rise apartment building in which the father of the chief of the Police purchased an apartment.
El Dia asks: "Why was the suspect allowed to make more exports? And concludes: "The country needs answers."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/... (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/jose-figueroa-agosto-myst_n_504639.html)
http://www.lasprovincias.es/valencia/20091106/local/sucesos/... (http://www.lasprovincias.es/valencia/20091106/local/sucesos/confiscan-santo-domingo-alijo-200911061831.html)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#12)