Last of the Dominican drug kingpins is behind bars: Prosecutor

Santo Domingo.- Just hours after reputed kingpin JesusPascual Cabrera Ruiz was detained in Spain, Justice minister FranciscoDominguez announced the arrest in the country Thursday of Jose Miguel Ceballos,allegedly the right arm of the also drug trafficker Winston Rizik, and linkedto the murder of Army 1st Lt. Guillermo Antonio Tejeda Kranwinkel,who was an Antinarcotics investigator.

He said Ceballos was arrested along with five others whomhe dint identify, and seized 300 kilos of cocaine, US$95,000 and RD$1.9 million;four luxury vehicles and a 9mm pistol with expired license, in various raids inSantiago and the capital.

He said in the coming hours the group will be arraigned inthe San Cristobal (south) courthouse, where they are being held.

In a press conference Dominguez said Cabrera and Risik, thelatter in custody in Monte Plata prison (east), had headed the country’s two majornetworks of international drug trafficking and contract killings. "Asleaders of rival groups, in their confrontations had as their hired guns, PikeEusebio and Ceballos, respectively, and are behind many deaths."

He investigators aimto determine if Ceballos took part in Tejeda Krawinkel’s murder eight yearsago.

"All this is part of the Dominican authorities’ policyto dismantle domestic cartels, which also includes the so-called DaríoGasolina, El Alacran (scorpion), Nino Come Mezcla and Pascual Cordero (El Chino),all of them behind bars," the prosecutor said.

Dominguez Brito said now that the main drug kingpins are inprison, “we have to now fight the new generations that are coming up into thisactivity."