SANTO DOMINGO.- The former advisor to the Executive Branch for Free Zones, dismissed in May of this year, Fabio Augusto Jorge Puras (the Neighbor), accused of drug trafficking by the United States authorities, will voluntarily surrender tomorrow to North American justice, a source close to the investigation revealed this morning.
The source reported that Jorge Puras will take a flight from the Dominican Republic to Miami, from where he is required to be prosecuted for drug trafficking.
He will travel in the company of Gaspar Antonio Polanco Virella, (the Great), who also appears in the file.
The reasons why the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic had not located him to date to open an extradition process before the Supreme Court of Justice if it had been made known since the file was processed through the Chancellery are unknown.
The defendants will have property confiscated in favor of the United States, any property that constitutes or is derived from any product that they have obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of said violation, as well as any property that they have used or intended to use, in any way or in part, to commit or facilitate the commission of the aforementioned crime.
In the file of the North American justice system, it is stated that the case has been investigated since at least 2019, an exact date unknown to the Grand Jury, and until around December 22, 2020, in Colombia, the Dominican Republic and other countries, the two accused.
According to the record, they combined, conspired, confederated and agreed with each other and other persons, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to distribute a Schedule II controlled substance.
According to the file, with the intention, knowledge and having reasonable grounds to believe that said controlled substance would be illegally imported into the United States, in violation of Title 21 of the Constitution of that country.
The controlled substance involved in the conspiracy attributed to each defendant is five kilograms or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine, in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
They are in the country
The defendants Jorge-Puras and Polanco Virella are in the country and it was learned that they would be in Santiago, from where they are coordinating their delivery.
The process is carried out by the Court of the Southern District of Florida.
The events would have taken place between 2019 and 2020, when the two accused would have coordinated logistical and financial operations to supposedly transport the drugs.
Government collaborates
The source said that the Dominican Government collaborates with the United States Anti-Drug Department (DEA).
“On instructions from President Luis Abinader, we are fully collaborating with the DEA in all requests related to this process,” said José Manuel Cabrera Ulloa, president of the National Drug Directorate.
The illicit operations under investigation would have occurred between 2003 and 2019, according to reports from the authorities.
