NewsWhore
06-26-2007, 02:20 PM
National District Prosecutor Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero says that there will be no deal with former army colonel Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo, known as "Quirino", as reported in the Listin Diario. He was referring to the offer to pay RD$100 million if all local charges against him and his family members are dropped. Family members face charges of money laundering and complicity made by Paulino Castillo's lawyer, Felix Damian Olivares, a former advisor to the National Police on the Penal Code. The lawyer said that they have been holding talks for six months over the possibility of such a deal, as reported in El Nacional. The authorities have confiscated RD$600-RD$700 million in bank accounts and assets from the family.
Yesterday, jurists Jottin Cury and Domingo Porfirio Rojas Nina, from the Human Rights Commission, warned prosecutor Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero not to negotiate such an offer that would undermine Dominican efforts to fight drug trafficking and set a bad precedent. Attorney General Radhames Jimenez Pena said that the legal authorities would meet in the next days to discuss the offer that had been delivered by Paulino Castillo's attorney Felix Damian Olivares. The Attorney General, nevertheless, is quoted in Hoy telling the prosecutor to "shut his mouth" and to stop commenting publicly on the issue. Jimenez continued by saying that ultimately he is the maximum authority on this matter and that he is the only one who is entitled to comment on it.
Paulino Castillo is the head of a Dominican cocaine trafficking ring known to have exported drugs to the US since at least September 2003. He was extradited to the US in 2005 and is standing trial at the New York Southern District Court. The investigation included the seizure of approximately 1,387 kilograms of cocaine in the DR on 18 December 2004. If convicted, Paulino Castillo faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. The US court indictment also seeks forfeiture of US$7 million.
Lawyer Felix Damian Olivares sustains that the case belongs to the US justice, and a case cannot be opened in the DR with the same charges against Paulino Castillo and his relatives. "The only thing the Dominican authorities can do is respond to the requirements of the US authorities," he said, as reported in El Nacional.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)
Yesterday, jurists Jottin Cury and Domingo Porfirio Rojas Nina, from the Human Rights Commission, warned prosecutor Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero not to negotiate such an offer that would undermine Dominican efforts to fight drug trafficking and set a bad precedent. Attorney General Radhames Jimenez Pena said that the legal authorities would meet in the next days to discuss the offer that had been delivered by Paulino Castillo's attorney Felix Damian Olivares. The Attorney General, nevertheless, is quoted in Hoy telling the prosecutor to "shut his mouth" and to stop commenting publicly on the issue. Jimenez continued by saying that ultimately he is the maximum authority on this matter and that he is the only one who is entitled to comment on it.
Paulino Castillo is the head of a Dominican cocaine trafficking ring known to have exported drugs to the US since at least September 2003. He was extradited to the US in 2005 and is standing trial at the New York Southern District Court. The investigation included the seizure of approximately 1,387 kilograms of cocaine in the DR on 18 December 2004. If convicted, Paulino Castillo faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. The US court indictment also seeks forfeiture of US$7 million.
Lawyer Felix Damian Olivares sustains that the case belongs to the US justice, and a case cannot be opened in the DR with the same charges against Paulino Castillo and his relatives. "The only thing the Dominican authorities can do is respond to the requirements of the US authorities," he said, as reported in El Nacional.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)