SANTO DOMINGO. - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) protocols and mechanisms to help fight drug trafficking and connected crimes are analyzed in a regional gathering being held in the country, aimed at improving Washington’s cooperation and equipment program to deal with that type of organized crime in the Caribbean.

National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) president Rolando Rosado said the gathering with the DEA’s senior officers proves that we are a safe country.

The encounter taking place in a hotel in the Dominican capital is headed by DEA regional director Javier Peña, who coordinates the activities of his post from his office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. DEA directors in Washington, New York, Miami, Santo Domingo and Haiti attend the activity, among other cities of the area.

“In this gathering the protocols and mechanisms of the DEA assistance and cooperation are being reviewed, mostly relating to equipment, in the case of the DNCD. We value this regional encounter highly, because it has a great meaning for the Dominican Republic," said DNCD president general Rolando Rosado.

Rosado and other DEA officials spoke in a press conference Thursday during a pause in the meeting that began early Wednesday, just moments before DNCD agents seized 809 kilos of cocaine in a house in Santo Domingo East, after a long investigation of a drug trafficking network.

“We (DEA) cannot do the work without the DNCD’s cooperation. This institution has been the key in dismantling dangerous structures such as Junior Capsula’s (Jose Figueroa Agosto) and other dangerous individuals who used this country to ship cocaine or heroin to the United States. The DNCD’s performance has been excellent, mainly from general Rosado’s leadership," Peña said.

He said the gathering’s intention, which concludes Friday, is "to improve the work, because if we don’t work together we lose ground," adding that without cooperation and exchange of information the drug trafficking networks would expand their operating range.

It can’t be denied, Peña said, that there are criminal groups acting in the zone and that’s the reason why "we must work together."

For security reasons the meeting of DEA officials and special agents is being held behind closed doors, without access for the media, though the Dominican antinarcotics chief stressed that the presence of that personnel is an example that here, we are a safe country for that important organization’s senior officers. "They have great esteem for the work that the DNCD is doing."