NEW YORK. - Tirso Cuevas Nin, eighth in the list of 17 indicted for trafficking 1,380 kilos of cocaine which the New York South District Court attributes to former Dominican Army captain Qurino Paulino, plead guilty in exchange of lesser charges on controlled substances.

Judge Kimba Wood had subpoenaed the defendant’s attorney Rudy Vélez for 2:30  p.m. last Friday, to discuss the plea by Cuevas, who has 10 children in the Dominican Republic, according to a report by the newspaper Listin Diario.

If judge Wood accepts the plea bargaining she’ll recognize the one year he spent in prison in the Dominican Republic and the two years in a Brooklyn, New York, facility awaiting trial. After serving any sentence he would be deported to the Dominican Republic.

Present in the courtroom were only the lawyer and some officers, when at 2:45 p.m. judge Wood’s assistant told Vélez that the new date to evaluate the case would be determined today Monday.

Outside the courtroom Vélez said his client accepted the plea bargaining with the Office of the Prosecutor and admitted that on December 18, 2004, he drove the blue Daihatsu truck, license plate L165796, on the Duarte highway, in the Dominican Republic, loaded with 1,380 kilos of cocaine.