Drug kingpin' known as Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean

Mexico and El Salvador has received the most international recognition for street gang development as a result of US deportation, but other countries in South & Central America & the Caribbean including Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Domincan Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti [d'Haïti], Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico [Estados Unidos Mexicanos], Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru [Perú], Puerto Rico, Suriname, Uruguay, Venenzuela and many other islands in the Caribbean.
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ViciousRidah
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Drug kingpin' known as Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean

Unread post by ViciousRidah » March 21st, 2013, 5:43 pm

Drug kingpin' known as Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean arrested

Alleged Caribbean drug lord, Jose Figueroa Agosto, apprehended in Dominican neighbourhood of San Juan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... lo-escobar

Federal authorities have arrested an alleged drug kingpin after a decade-long chase through the Caribbean. Known as the Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean, Jose Figueroa Agosto was wearing a wig when he was spotted driving through a Dominican neighbourhood of San Juan on Saturday. When he realised he was being followed, he tried to run, but this time US and Puerto Rican police caught up. "It is a tremendous arrest," US attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said.Escobar, the Colombian drug lord of the 1980s, was an escaped convict who died in a shootout with police in 1993. Agosto, 45, is suspected of shipping Colombian drugs to the US through Puerto Rico, where he escaped from prison in 1999 after presenting a forged release order. He had served only four years of a 209-year sentence for killing a man suspected of stealing a cocaine shipment. A month later, he moved to the Dominican Republic and was briefly detained during a 2001 drug investigation, but was released because he was using an alias.

Though no one can say exactly how much cocaine he moved, the scale of Agosto's empire emerged after the botched September raid, which netted several cars, including an armoured Mercedes Benz with $4.6 million cash inside, and a laptop computer full of evidence.

With leads on several new aliases, police intensified the search. Six of his properties were confiscated – among them a million-dollar apartment in the Dominican resort area of Puerto Plata and a ranch outside Santo Domingo with a small zoo.

A man claiming to be Agosto called a popular Dominican radio show in December to say he got away after paying police $1 million. He called again in February and pledged $800,000 to anyone who would kill one of two top Dominican police officers.

US and Dominican officials said the man was probably Agosto.

US Attorney General Eric Holder personally pledged full co-operation to capture the fugitive, who was wanted on a US Marshals warrant for his prison escape and for filing a false passport application. He was also the target of a US task force focusing on major drug suppliers to the US

He is wanted in the Dominican Republic on kidnapping, money-laundering, drug-trafficking and murder charges.

Summoned by President Leonel Fernandez, Dominican officials met behind closed doors for more than two hours after Agosto's capture. They said they would announce today what actions they will take against him.

"This had been the Dominican state's biggest challenge," Police Chief Rafael Guillermo Guzman said, referring to the hunt for Figueroa.

Wanted posters are plastered across Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, for Agosto and his lover Sobeida Morel, the country's second-most wanted fugitive, who was detained on money-laundering charges last year. She posted bail and vanished before the extent of her alleged involvement with Agosto became clear.

Morel is still at large. Federal authorities said the investigation is ongoing and that more arrests could be announced.

"We know that the tentacles of Mr Figueroa Agosto are long," said Luis Fraticelli, special agent in charge of the FBI in Puerto Rico.

Javier Pena, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Caribbean division, added: "We have a message for fugitives: Sooner or later you will be caught."

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