SAN JUAN DE LA MAGUANA. – Justice minister Radhamés Jiménez announced the construction of two penitentiaries in this province, in one of the former farms that belonged to Quirino Paulino, extradited to New York on drug trafficking charges, after the biggest drug bust in the country’s history.

In a tour of one of four farms, Jiménez said a 100 inmate minimum security prison, and a regional prison for 800 will be built, as part of the Dominican penitentiary system’s expansion and modernization, as well as to resume crop production in the surrounding hundreds of acres, in coordination with other government agencies.

The official noted that the Dominican Justice Ministry mediated an agreement between the U.S. and Dominican governments, through which the former cedes a series of Paulino’s assets including real properties in this country.

Paulino’s December, 2004 arrest with 1,386 kilos of cocaine was the biggest drug bust in the country’s history.

SOURCE: diariolibre.com.do