Law enforcement officers detained following Dominican Republic cocaine haul

The National Drug Control Directorate said the cocaine was discovered in suitcases bound for Belgium.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Friday December 16, 2011 - Fifteen local law enforcement officers and two Europeans have been arrested in connection with a massive cocaine seizure at an airport here.

Authorities said the one-ton cargo of cocaine was packed into suitcases bound for Antwerp, Belgium on a flight from the La Romana International Airport.

The foreigners are Edgar Rowson of Britain and Nicolas Johannes Maria of the Netherlands.

Authorities are searching for several Lebanese as well, according to Roberto Lebron of the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD).

The officers who were detained worked at the airport, with the security force, the immigration service and the anti-drug agency, Lebron said.

On Wednesday, DNCD seized a shipment of plantains called ‘rulos’ that were stuffed with 117 tubes of cocaine in a container bound for New York.

Three people were initially detained for questioning.

The drugs were placed “at random in boxes containing rulos inside a container parked in the cargo area,” the DNCD spokesman explained.

“The suspects in the case took the rulos, they peeled them, put plastic bags full of a white powder inside and then closed them carefully.”

That discovery was made at another local airport. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)