Santo Domingo.- One of the commitments taken on by former Dominican army captain Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo as part of his plea-bargain with the South District Federal Court of New York in return for a reduced sentence was to ensure that his family was resettled in a safe location to prevent reprisals from his former associates.

According to reports, the protection order was one of the points that sealed the deal. This opens the way for the authorities to seize the remaining multi-million dollar assets left by Quirino in the Dominican Republic.

The drug trafficker has apparently named some key figures in the case, telling of his activities in the country and the protection he received from certain people with political and military influence. The US authorities are interested in finding out how the former army officer was able to operate in this way for such a long time and it is believed that more extradition orders could now be imminent.

Of a total of 22 people found guilty so far, the first to negotiate an agreement with the New York Federal Prosecutor was businessman Ramón Pérez, followed by Juan Cruz Crisóstomo, Richard Peña Mejía, former colonel Lidio Nin Terrero, driver Tirso Cuevas Nin and exchange house owner José Abel Burdíez.

Others implicated in the case are Faustino Perozo, Federico Miranda Hernández, José Ortega de León, Marcos Taveras Jiménez, Luis Eduardo Cordero Rodríguez, Bladimir García Jiménez, Fátima Henríquez Díaz, twin brothers Luis David and Jean Paul Ulloa and Juan Samuel Rodríguez Cordero. Luis David negotiated a 10-year sentence in an agreement with the Prosecutor; Jean Paul Ulloa will only serve four years of which just eight months are left as he was arrested in 2005. The Ulloa brothers are believed to have made US$3.5 million in illegal earnings.