12988: Diplomat arrested for drug trafficking: posted by Charles Arthur (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Source: DR1, date 30 August 2002

Diplomat arrested for drug trafficking

The National Department of Drug Control (DNCD) announced that Dominican vice
consul in Port au Prince, Ornis Freddy Peņa Mendez was arrested for drug
trafficking. The 52-year-old Peņa Mendez was arrested with 43 kilos of
cocaine that were found in his Mitsubishi Montero (with Haiti diplomatic
license plate) in the Cristo Rey slum north of the National District. DNCD
officers also confiscated several guns, including an Uzi machine gun, cell
phones and 17 Dominican and Haitian passports.

He was arrested with his driver Pilinio Perez and Wilvio Medina Cuevas
(Silverio), a Cristo Rey resident to whom the 46 packages of cocaine were to
have been delivered to. Medina had been deemed a fugitive recently and was
taken into custody also for his ties to a network that used the Caribe Tours
bus line to transport drugs to the Dominican Republic.

The DNCD said it had been on the trail of Peņa for several months.
Reportedly, Peņa entered through the Jimani check point.

Diario Libre reports that Peņa was appointed to the job at the start of the
Mejia government in August 2000. The newspaper says Senator Dagoberto
Rodriguez recommended him.

Peņa is the second consular officer arrested by Dominican authorities. Just
recently, Cap Haitien consul Radhames Garcia was arrested for smuggling
Chinese citizens to the Dominican Republic.