District Attorney says hired killers are fact of life

SANTO DOMINGO.-The District Attorney for the National District calls the operation of hired killers in the Dominican Republic a cruel reality which he attributes to organized crime and drug and arms trafficking.

"Unfortunately this is a cruel reality. The use of assassins is the product also of organized crime, the hired assassin also comes from drug trafficking or arms trafficking, with all that is involved in organized crime," said the official.

Alejandro Moscoso Segarra recommended strong attacks on drug trafficking and organized crime.

He cited the death of Spaniard Adolfo Justo Cervantes Arellano ("Waikiki"), who was being investigated for the death of Army Lieutenant Guillermo Tejeda Kranwinkel that occurred in March of last year.

Pedro Alejandro Castillo Paniagua ("Raffy"), a nephew of former captain Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo and Jovanny Antonio Padilla Santiago/ or Magaro Morel Otano/or Rumaldo Fernandez, deported from the United States, supposed admitted to agents from the Criminal Investigation Department to have collected the sum of US$30,000 to commit the crime against the Spaniard.

Moscoso Segarra said that the District Attorney's office participated in the first part of the investigations, because they felt that Cervantes Arellano had some relations to the death of Tejeda Kranwinkel.

District Attorney Alejandro Moscoso Segarra referred to the complaints that Colombian, Venezuelans and other nationalities are present in the country collecting debts for the underworld, and executing those that have things pending because of ripping off some drugs or not paying their debts.