The feds have busted 11 suspects in Providence, RI for their alleged roles in a heroin ring run by a Dominican group on behalf of a Mexican cartel as reported by Tatiana Pina for the Providence Journal: "the investigation . . . resulted in the seizure of more than 3 kilos of heroin, which carries approximately a $1 million street value, $450,000 in cash, a substantial quantity of high-end jewelry, five fire arms, four of them loaded, and 12 vehicles."
Dominican drug trafficking organizations -- both in the Dominican Republic and in North America -- increasingly have been appearing on law enforcement's radar screen for their involvement as distributors for the Mexican drug cartels.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is working with the Dominican Republic's National Drug Control Agency to investigate a suspected new cartel that has formed in the Caribbean nation as reported by The Associated Press: "Agency spokesman Ramon Rodriguez described the group as extremely dangerous and said they work with cartels in Mexico and Colombia." The reputed cartel is dubbed the Cibao Cartel for the country's northern region as reported by Dominican Today.
Earlier this year U.S. customs officials seized 130 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $4 million from three unattended duffel bags which arrived on a flight from the Dominican Republic to Philadelphia International Airport as reported by WPVI: "the previous largest cocaine seizure at Philadelphia International was 55 pounds of the powdery narcotic, seized on August 5, 2000."
Last year police in Montreal, QC Canada busted a Dominican drug ring which allegedly "acted as a broker in the importation of cocaine and ecstasy into Canada, which was then re-distributed on the streets by the Italian mafia, street gangs, and Hells Angels" over the last fifteen years as reported by CTV.
