NewsWhore
03-02-2012, 01:40 PM
Last December, analysts for the US State Department and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as well as independent analysts, told a US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Drug Trafficking that the Sinaloa Cartel, Mexico's largest and most powerful group, is establishing drug routes with the Dominican Republic as the command center.
When law enforcement began to dismantle the Colombian cartels, William Brownfield, Assistant US Secretary of State in charge of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said that trafficking activity then shifted to Mexico to "age-old smuggling routes along the porous overland border."
Increased violence in Mexico, however, has placed US law enforcement pressure squarely on the cartels, which are consequently developing alternative drug-trafficking routes to more southern Latin American countries and - in anticipation of intervention efforts targeting Central America - to the Caribbean.
Brownfield added, "We see this crisis coming. We even have some sense as to when it will arrive."
Borderland Beat noted that in recent months, Dominican officials have blamed the Mexican group for a handful of murders and stealing a corporate jet from an airport there. The jet, which was later recovered in Venezuela, was going to be used to transport cocaine from South America.
During the hearing, Senator Robert Menendez spoke of escalating drug traffic in the Sinaloa's new command center, the Dominican Republic, and observed that there seems to be a lack of urgency as violence continues to grow in the Caribbean Basin. He stated that, "The problem is becoming so dire in the Dominican Republic that a presidential candidate in that country recently warned that his country is close to becoming "a narco-state. He [the candidate] said that the government is incapable of stopping drug traffickers. I am neither satisfied with the progress being made on the ground nor the news and information I am receiving from the region."
DEA Assistant Administrator Rodney Benson said the presence of the Sinaloa Cartel in the Dominican Republic was confirmed in an operation last year in which the agency helped local officials arrest Luis Fernando Bertolucci Castillo, a member of the Sinaloas who'd been coordinating shipments by air from Venezuela. But the Dominican Republic was unprepared for the ensuing acts of reprisals and violence.
Dr. Eduardo Gamarra, with the Florida International University, an expert on the Caribbean region, observed, "The Dominican Republic is becoming the place where numerous drug trafficking transnational organizations are settling their scores." A survey concluded that 60% of Dominicans don't feel safe in their own neighborhoods.
In addition, there are increased signs of drug abuse on the island, as the Sinaloa Cartel offers drugs instead of cash to local smugglers as payment for services.
The cartel is also seeking logistical support from Dominicans, including reliance on nationals to provide them with small planes.
www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/north-america-mainmenu-36/11010-sinaloa-drug-cartelsnew-caribbean-routes-centered-in-dominican-republic (http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/north-america-mainmenu-36/11010-sinaloa-drug-cartelsnew-caribbean-routes-centered-in-dominican-republic)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)
When law enforcement began to dismantle the Colombian cartels, William Brownfield, Assistant US Secretary of State in charge of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said that trafficking activity then shifted to Mexico to "age-old smuggling routes along the porous overland border."
Increased violence in Mexico, however, has placed US law enforcement pressure squarely on the cartels, which are consequently developing alternative drug-trafficking routes to more southern Latin American countries and - in anticipation of intervention efforts targeting Central America - to the Caribbean.
Brownfield added, "We see this crisis coming. We even have some sense as to when it will arrive."
Borderland Beat noted that in recent months, Dominican officials have blamed the Mexican group for a handful of murders and stealing a corporate jet from an airport there. The jet, which was later recovered in Venezuela, was going to be used to transport cocaine from South America.
During the hearing, Senator Robert Menendez spoke of escalating drug traffic in the Sinaloa's new command center, the Dominican Republic, and observed that there seems to be a lack of urgency as violence continues to grow in the Caribbean Basin. He stated that, "The problem is becoming so dire in the Dominican Republic that a presidential candidate in that country recently warned that his country is close to becoming "a narco-state. He [the candidate] said that the government is incapable of stopping drug traffickers. I am neither satisfied with the progress being made on the ground nor the news and information I am receiving from the region."
DEA Assistant Administrator Rodney Benson said the presence of the Sinaloa Cartel in the Dominican Republic was confirmed in an operation last year in which the agency helped local officials arrest Luis Fernando Bertolucci Castillo, a member of the Sinaloas who'd been coordinating shipments by air from Venezuela. But the Dominican Republic was unprepared for the ensuing acts of reprisals and violence.
Dr. Eduardo Gamarra, with the Florida International University, an expert on the Caribbean region, observed, "The Dominican Republic is becoming the place where numerous drug trafficking transnational organizations are settling their scores." A survey concluded that 60% of Dominicans don't feel safe in their own neighborhoods.
In addition, there are increased signs of drug abuse on the island, as the Sinaloa Cartel offers drugs instead of cash to local smugglers as payment for services.
The cartel is also seeking logistical support from Dominicans, including reliance on nationals to provide them with small planes.
www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/north-america-mainmenu-36/11010-sinaloa-drug-cartelsnew-caribbean-routes-centered-in-dominican-republic (http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/north-america-mainmenu-36/11010-sinaloa-drug-cartelsnew-caribbean-routes-centered-in-dominican-republic)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)