SANTO DOMINGO. - Senator Wilton Guerrero accused Justice minister Radhamés Jiménez of negligence on his denunciations on drug trafficking and asked the Police and the Justice Ministry to investigate the alleged links to drug trafficking of Baní Police commander Hilario González and assistant prosecutor Esther González, in the aftermath of the Bani bloodbath, where seven suspected traffickers were gunned down gangland style.

He said Victor Cordero, who resigned as assistant prosecutor last week, protected drug use and trafficking and knew of the points to sell drugs without taking action.

In a press conference in the Senate, Guerrero accused Baní Police officials of constantly taking part in social activities, “ate goat and drank whiskey” with the foreigners murdered last week in Paya, a community of Bani, who the authorities say were involved in drug trafficking. “The officers were so shameless that they even visited the narcotics traffickers in police SUVs.”

The ruling party legislator said he visited Jiménez in four occasions since September, 2006 and gave him a voluminous file that involved the members of the Justice Ministry, the Police and the Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) in his province, in criminal activities linked to drug traffic and consumption, but didn’t take any measure to deal with that situation. “If we met seven times, four times with the Prosecutor, once with his assistant, with the San Cristóbal Appellate Court Prosecutor and with a commission designated by him (Radhamés Jiménez) and he didn’t act, then it’s because there is negligence. The measures that had to be taken were not taken.”

In the press conference he attended accompanied by his sons, some PLD party leaders from Baní and the legislators Charlie Mariotti, Dionis Sanchez and Diego Aquino, Guerrero said he also took his denunciation to Interior and Police minister Franklin Almeyda; to Executive Branch Legal consultant Cesar Pina Toribio; with the then head Police chief Manuel de Jesus Perez and other senior officials.

The legislator spoke after an interview of more than four hours by the commission formed by president Leonel Fernandez to probe his denunciation, in the wake of the Bani bloodbath. Armed Forces minister Ramon Antonio; Police chief Rafael Guzmán and Jiménez head the commission.

Police commander denies charges

General Hilario González , commander of the 18th Company, based in Baní, denied Guerrero’s accusations, and said he didn’t know of Guerrero’s denunciations. “I am not aware of the Senator’s accusations,” he said, and that if he knew of any officer linked to drug trafficking he would’ve taken action.