Santo Domingo.- An alleged recruiter of drug “mules” who has being held for 12 days has yet to be arraigned in the city Higüey, a delay the National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) warns could lead to his release, despite facing 10 years in prison if convicted for possession of 5 kilos of cocaine.

It said Jose Miguel de Los Santos, arrested mid March, forms part of a network which uses women to ship drugs to Canada, mostly nationals of that country.

“All the efforts have been made to schedule the arraignment, but it has been impossible,” the DNCD said in a statement which questions Higuey’s Office of the Prosecutor in the delay.

It said de los Santos recruited the Canadians Carla Lopes, Daniela Maria Pea Ruggiero and Violeta Luas to smuggle to Toronto nearly 20 kilos of cocaine out of the airport at Punta Cana, taped to their abdomen.

The DNCD said despite de los Santos’ prior conviction to 10 years in prison, “inexplicably he’s on the loose and dedicated to his main activity: drug trafficking.”

It adds that the authorities learned that the Canadian women, still being held in Higüey, had traveled to Dominican Republic several times.