Quirino named 37 accomplices, but only two have been extradited to the US
Sources tell Diario Libre that the Grand Jury will indict new defendants in this case
Diario Libre
NEW YORK. A Grand Jury in the Southern District Federal Court, where for nearly seven years the case of the former captain in the Dominican army, Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo (El Don) had been held in closed courtrooms, will session once more in the coming weeks to evaluate accusations against a new group of persons implicated in the much-talked-about case and decide whether or not to formally present charges for international drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering against them.
A source in the court that refused to be identified said that the Grand Jury has received the case files of former high ranking military persons, businessmen and some political leaders that could be requested in extradition by the Justice Department.
With respect to the politicians, it has been thought that the United States will evaluate the importance of these persons in the electorate so as not to undermine the party system and the leadership of important figures in the national public life and would consider have them under surveillance and not call for their extradition.
After the Grand Jury meets and determines which members of the group have probable cause for a formal indictment and trial, or negotiate guilty pleas, they will issue the arrest warrants and the paperwork of the requests to the Dominican government, through the embassy in Washington so that they can be arrested and delivered to the American system of justice.
The source indicated that the calling of the Grand Jury, which meets in secret and no one knows the identity of its members, will be done by the prosecutors by year's end at the latest or at the start of 2013.
Quirino has gone 39 times to hearings in this same court, while he continues to be held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Brooklyn, but everything that is said in the tribunal is sealed and secret which does not allow access to the information regarding the evolution of the case.
Several yeasr ago it was reported that the former Dominican military officer, extradited at the start of 2005 and accused together with 20 other suspects, supposedly made a deal with the prosecutors and supplied a list of 37 names of persons tied to his organization and other drug trafficking gangs with connections to drug cartels in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia and other countries in Central and South America.
Of the first 21, only three, including Quirino, are still in jail without being sentences yet, which gives the perception that they continue to negotiate with the prosecutors that represent the United States government in this case.
Of the 37 on the list, only Ernesto Bienvenido Guevara Diaz (Maconi) who was said to be a brother in law of Quirino and Faustino Perozo have been extradited so far by the Dominican government.
Maconi is accused by the prosecutors of being the strategist regarding the packing and transportation of the 1,387 kilos that were seized by the Dominican officials and the DEA. The drugs were being carried on a truck belonging to Quirino and it was supposedly going to the Santiago Free Zone. Maconi was indicted by a Grand Jury at the end of 2008 and requested in extradition during the start of 2009.
His case file, marked with the number 08CRIM111, says that he also trafficked cocaine, at least 5 kilos, in international waters between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
After the Fourth Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice decided on his extradition, President Leonel Fernandez authorized his delivery by Decree 482-09.
The Quirino case returned to the national scene after Diario Libre published an exclusive report that the former captain has not been sentences in the United States and that he is being used to identify many more members of his own organization and of international cartels that supplied thousands of kilos in the years before his arrest in an operation directed by the DEA but carried out by the National Directorate for Drug Control (DNCD) in Santo Domingo.
A source in the court that refused to be identified said that the Grand Jury has received the case files of former high ranking military persons, businessmen and some political leaders that could be requested in extradition by the Justice Department.
With respect to the politicians, it has been thought that the United States will evaluate the importance of these persons in the electorate so as not to undermine the party system and the leadership of important figures in the national public life and would consider have them under surveillance and not call for their extradition.
After the Grand Jury meets and determines which members of the group have probable cause for a formal indictment and trial, or negotiate guilty pleas, they will issue the arrest warrants and the paperwork of the requests to the Dominican government, through the embassy in Washington so that they can be arrested and delivered to the American system of justice.
The source indicated that the calling of the Grand Jury, which meets in secret and no one knows the identity of its members, will be done by the prosecutors by year's end at the latest or at the start of 2013.
Quirino has gone 39 times to hearings in this same court, while he continues to be held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Brooklyn, but everything that is said in the tribunal is sealed and secret which does not allow access to the information regarding the evolution of the case.
Several yeasr ago it was reported that the former Dominican military officer, extradited at the start of 2005 and accused together with 20 other suspects, supposedly made a deal with the prosecutors and supplied a list of 37 names of persons tied to his organization and other drug trafficking gangs with connections to drug cartels in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia and other countries in Central and South America.
Of the first 21, only three, including Quirino, are still in jail without being sentences yet, which gives the perception that they continue to negotiate with the prosecutors that represent the United States government in this case.
Of the 37 on the list, only Ernesto Bienvenido Guevara Diaz (Maconi) who was said to be a brother in law of Quirino and Faustino Perozo have been extradited so far by the Dominican government.
Maconi is accused by the prosecutors of being the strategist regarding the packing and transportation of the 1,387 kilos that were seized by the Dominican officials and the DEA. The drugs were being carried on a truck belonging to Quirino and it was supposedly going to the Santiago Free Zone. Maconi was indicted by a Grand Jury at the end of 2008 and requested in extradition during the start of 2009.
His case file, marked with the number 08CRIM111, says that he also trafficked cocaine, at least 5 kilos, in international waters between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
After the Fourth Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice decided on his extradition, President Leonel Fernandez authorized his delivery by Decree 482-09.
The Quirino case returned to the national scene after Diario Libre published an exclusive report that the former captain has not been sentences in the United States and that he is being used to identify many more members of his own organization and of international cartels that supplied thousands of kilos in the years before his arrest in an operation directed by the DEA but carried out by the National Directorate for Drug Control (DNCD) in Santo Domingo.
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