Dominican Government asks the US’ help to fight a Mexican drug cartel

Washington.- Dominican authorities have detected cells of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug Cartel in the northern part of their country, said its ambassador during a congressional hearing in the United States Wednesday.

Aníbal de Castro, who appeared before the Senate committee for the combat of international drug trafficking, said the Mexican national Luis Fernando Bertolucci Castillo after his arrest confessed that the Sinaloa Cartel “aims to create a route to Europe through the Dominican Republic.”

After being detained and questioned, Bertolucci was extradited to the United States, where he faces charges of money laundering and drug trafficking.

The diplomat linked the cartel, which could be operating in the northern cities of Santiago, La Vega and Jarabacoa, with the recent murders of three Colombians, a Spaniard and a Venezuelan and noted that the Sinaloa Cartel can “be receiving help from Dominican criminal groups in the Cibao (north) region to acquire chemicals used in the manufacture of narcotics.”

Cooperation

De Castro also lauded Washington’s cooperation with the Caribbean nation in the war on drugs, but called “crucial” the creation of a Tactical Air Control Center with high capacity radars to improve airspace surveillance, especially along the Haitian border, among other measures.