NEW YORK.- Three defendants in the drug trafficking case of the ex Dominican Army captain Quirino Paulino will go on trial in August and November, according to documents from Manhattan South District Federal Court quoted by newspaper Diario Libre.  

Paulino and co-defendants are charged with trafficking more than 1,380 kilos of cocaine, seized in December 2004, the largest bust in Dominican history.

On Monday Fátima Henríquez, proprietor of the shipping company Fama Shipping located in Upper Manhattan’s Amsterdam Avenue, will go before judge Kimba Wood, after having entering a plea of not guilty.

A hearing is also slated to begin 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, for Richard Mejía Peña, an employee of the moneychanger Casa de Cambio Abel in Moca (north).

At 10:00 a.m. November 10 the businessman Bladimir Andres Garcia Jiménez will also appear before Wood, to face trafficking and money laundering charges both from Dominican authorities and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The three are part of the 253-page indictment by New York South District Federal prosecutor Michael J. Garcia and Assistant John O´ Donell, who’ve already racked up victories by getting several of the 21 defendants to accept plea-bargaining in the “Quirino case,” said to involve politicians, military officers, financiers, religious institutions, foundations, the media and even lawmakers.