Pubdate: Sat, 14 Apr 2012 Source: Miami Herald (FL) Copyright: 2012 Miami Herald Media Co. Contact: http://www.miamiherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262 Author: Ezra Fieser CAPTURE AND EXTRADITION OF ALLEGED SINALOA MEMBERS INDICATE CARTEL SPREADING INTO DR The Arrests of the Two Alleged Sinaloa Cartel Members Is Strongest Sign Yet That the Group Might Be Active in the Dominican Republic. SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Two alleged members of the Sinaloa cartel were caught here and promptly extradited to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges, providing new evidence that the feared Mexican criminal group is establishing a presence in the Dominican Republic. Hector Andres Chavez Ramirez and Jorge Herman Peralta Medrano, also known as "El Nazi," were caught late last month in a Santo Domingo hotel as part of a low-profile sting operation organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). They were flown to New York where they face charges of conspiring to smuggle drugs into the U.S., according to court documents. The arrests came to light only this week when the court documents were unsealed. An April 16 court appearance has been set, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The Dominican Republic's drug czar, presidential advisor Mauricio Vinicio Castillo, said that one of the men served as a pilot to Sinaloa boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, considered the world's most powerful drug trafficker. It was unclear how close the men were to Guzman. The arrests are further proof that the Sinaloa cartel is working to establish itself in the country as the drug war in Mexico, Central America and Colombia squeezes existing operations. "The Dominican Republic is the victim of the pressure put on [drug trafficking] organizations that are large and seeking a place to avoid the pressures they are under" in other parts of Latin America, said Eduardo Gamarra, a Florida International University professor and an advisor to the Dominican president on security matters. The Caribbean is not displacing the preferred Central America-Mexico route for drug trafficking. Only an estimated 10 percent of cocaine bound for the U.S. flows through the islands. But officials, including high-ranking members of President Barack Obama's administration, have warned that the islands are vulnerable to an increase in trafficking. Anibal de Castro, the Dominican Ambassador to the U.S., in February told a Senate committee, "the Sinaloa cartel is seeking to create a route to Europe using the Dominican Republic." In the last 14 months, Dominican anti-narcotics units have arrested 10 suspected Sinaloa members, deporting seven of them to the United States. One of those captured, Luis Fernando Bertolucci Castillo, told investigators that the cartel was working with Dominican criminal groups to obtain chemicals used in synthetic drug production. Last month, Dominican officials, in an operation carried out with DEA support, caught a huge cocaine shipment bound for Europe. Dominican officials said it belonged to the Sinaloa cartel. "Obviously, we have confirmed that the [Sinaloa] cartel has a presence here and the arrests we've made have shown that," said Roberto Lebron, spokesman with the Dominican National Directorate for Drug Control (DNCD). According to a sealed indictment filed against Chavez and Peralta, DEA agents began tracking the two men in January. Peralta and Chavez met with sources working for the DEA on March 13 and March 18 in Santo Domingo, the indictment said. In those meetings, they discussed transporting more than one metric ton of cocaine from Venezuela to Honduras and importing a portion of it into the United States through Mexico. The indictment was unsealed when the DEA sought to share information with Dominican anti-narcotics agencies and execute the arrest. With its first world amenities and third world judicial system, the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, has long been a favored destination for criminal groups. U.S. and Dominican officials estimate that as much as 70 tons of cocaine were shipped through the country as recently as 2008. The DNCD said that number dropped to 13 tons last year, about half of which was seized. Thus far in 2012, they've seized about 8,580 pounds, Lebron said. Still, the country remains vulnerable to trafficking. That may be leading the Sinaloa group to seek out collaborations. But thus far, the cartel's involvement has been limited. "The Dominican Republic is becoming the center of operations for the Caribbean," Gamarra said. "But it has not become the headquarters for Sinaloa operations." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom