NewsWhore
08-26-2011, 05:50 PM
A report in Time Magazine, "Why It's No Longer Raining Cocaine in the Dominican Republic", dated 25 August 2011, gives international endorsement of what Major General Rolando Rosado of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) has already said: the Brazilian Super Tucano jets have been effective in eradicating air drops of cocaine in the DR.
Time Magazine gives the Brazilian Embraer jets credit for their efficiency in the task. Time reports that Dominican officials even sit at the US Southern Command monitoring center in Key West, Florida, and notify the Dominican Air Force when drug planes are detected approaching the DR on radar. Now with the Super Tucanos, the country can do something about this. "Perhaps the Super Tucano's chief asset is how quick and nimble it is in the air while still possessing more power than most planes used by traffickers," says Time.
Mabel Feliz Baez, head of the Dominican Republic's National Drug Council, agrees that the Caribbean nation "was being bombed by these drug shipments." She told Time: "At the height of the drops in 2007, at least 200 narco-planes flew over the country, releasing thousands of pounds of cocaine at a time. But while much of it was en route to the US, Dominican officials didn't find much help from Washington in combating it. So they turned instead to a seemingly unheralded partner in the anti-drug fight: Brazil. That year, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez borrowed US$93.7 million from the South American giant and purchased eight Super Tucanos, the fast and agile single-engine turbo prop manufactured by Brazilian aerospace corporation Embraer.
Today the heat is off: the Super Tucanos turned out to be an unusually worthwhile drug-war investment. Since taking delivery of the planes in 2009, the Dominican Air Force says it has driven away drug flights to the point that they no longer enter the country's airspace."
Read more: www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2090425,00.html (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2090425,00.html)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
Time Magazine gives the Brazilian Embraer jets credit for their efficiency in the task. Time reports that Dominican officials even sit at the US Southern Command monitoring center in Key West, Florida, and notify the Dominican Air Force when drug planes are detected approaching the DR on radar. Now with the Super Tucanos, the country can do something about this. "Perhaps the Super Tucano's chief asset is how quick and nimble it is in the air while still possessing more power than most planes used by traffickers," says Time.
Mabel Feliz Baez, head of the Dominican Republic's National Drug Council, agrees that the Caribbean nation "was being bombed by these drug shipments." She told Time: "At the height of the drops in 2007, at least 200 narco-planes flew over the country, releasing thousands of pounds of cocaine at a time. But while much of it was en route to the US, Dominican officials didn't find much help from Washington in combating it. So they turned instead to a seemingly unheralded partner in the anti-drug fight: Brazil. That year, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez borrowed US$93.7 million from the South American giant and purchased eight Super Tucanos, the fast and agile single-engine turbo prop manufactured by Brazilian aerospace corporation Embraer.
Today the heat is off: the Super Tucanos turned out to be an unusually worthwhile drug-war investment. Since taking delivery of the planes in 2009, the Dominican Air Force says it has driven away drug flights to the point that they no longer enter the country's airspace."
Read more: www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2090425,00.html (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2090425,00.html)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)