Santo Domingo. - United States and Dominican Republic antinarcotics agencies have determined that Mexico’s feared “Sinaloa Cartel” was establishing a local drugs route to the U.S. and Europe, an operation headed by the group’s Joaquin Guzmán Loera (Chapo Guzmán), newspaper El Dia reports.

The Mexican Luis Fernando Bertulucci Castillo, Guzman’s direct subordinate, in charge of the operation in the country, was arrested last week in a luxury condo Cayenas V, in the upscale sector Paraiso.

El Dia reports that Bertulucci was extradited to the United States Just a few hours after his arrest, and once he arrived in New York, was immediately transferred to Boston.

Before his extradition, Castillo was interrogated in the Drugs Control Agency (DNCD), which confirmed Guzmán’s attempt to use Dominican territory as an enclave for one of the cartel’s routes from South America to Europe, El Dia reports.

The discovery of the Mexican link began with the July 1 arrest, in Villa Mella, of the Lebanese Mawan Chebli Chebli, who turned out to be a figure with frequent movements between Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico. He was even processed in Venezuela in June 2007.

After that arrest by DNCD agents the presence of the Sinaloa Cartel ring was detected,   and Betulucci’s subsequent arrest, in addition to the Mexican Jose Luis Martinez Vidro, the Colombian Luis Fernando Restrepo Lopez, and the Dominicans Leonel Gomez Guzmán, Jose Antonio Contreras and Miguel Rosa Ureña, wanted by the United States in extradition.

Money laundering in the USA

In addition to Bertulucci, his Dominican partners in drug trafficking and money laundering operations were also detained.

The DNCD called the group “a ring that laundered money in a grand scale in the USA, Canada, Colombia, Venezuela, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, although the information makes emphasis on the level of its actions was rooted in cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Miami.”