SANTO DOMINGO.- Government Ethics Commission president Marino Vinicio Castillo on Thursday affirmed the United States knew that the murder convict Jose Figueroa Agosto, now being held in a Puerto Rican “high security” prison, was in the country since 2001.

He said if Dominican authorities don’t attack the structure which protected Figueroa’s crime network, in just a short time would arise a similar organization which operated unchecked in the country during 10 years, in his view supported by sectors entrenched in echelons of power, mainly the police and the military.

“If Figueroa’s protection structure isn’t attacked we’re going to have another Figueroa in a short term with a different name. No one can assume that Figueroa escaped from Puerto Rico in 1999 and sentenced to 209 years in jail could come here and become the king of cocaine without important enclaves of power, civilian, military and police,” he said.

Castillo said since 2001 US authorities knew that the murder convict, now being held in a Puerto Rican “high security” prison, of his presence here and that on one believes he could walk Santo Domingo’s streets without the support of important sectors.

The official said he’s confident this case wouldn’t end up like with Quirino Paulino, who despite having confessed to smuggling 33 tons of cocaine to that country, the revelation should’ve led to the extradition of powerful people who protected him, though “six years later they’ve done nothing.”

He said the only ones the Americans took were the “petty thieves” and given the country’s institutional weakness hopes their “powerful” judicial structure can extradite those linked to the “Puerto Rico Cartel,” which he affirms operate the inter-island cocaine trafficking platform.