Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo, a.k.a. "el Don" (born 8 September 1960 in Comendador,

Elías Piña Province Elías Piña () is a westernmost province which composing one of the 32 provinces of the Dominican Republic. It is divided into 6 municipalities and its capital city is Comendador. It is bordered by the provinces of Dajabón to the north-west, ...

) is an ex-captain of the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, and alleged boss of a drug-trafficking organization responsible for importing tons of

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

into the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

since September 2003. Castillo's personal fortune was estimated at $2 billion dollars.

Background of the Paulino Organization

Paulino was raised in the

Elías Piña Elias is the Greek equivalent of Elijah ( he, אֵלִיָּהוּ‎ ''ʾĒlīyyāhū''; Syriac: ܐܠܝܐ ''Eliyā''; Arabic: الیاس Ilyās/Elyās), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several holy ...

province of the Dominican Republic. He began his military career in the National Army in 1978 and soon after, he discovered the profits to be made in illegal trading over the border with

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. Under civilian and military protection, Paulino increased his wealth and assets, and immersed himself in politics, commerce, banking, agriculture, and military activities. Since September 2003, Paulino headed a cocaine trafficking organization that transferred cocaine from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

(primarily from

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

) via the Dominican Republic en route to the United States. The organization used a variety of routes to send the cocaine from the Dominican Republic and/or Haiti towards

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

to the U.S. mainland, including

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. After the drug was received and distributed in the United States, the profits were returned to several bank accounts in the Dominican Republic.

Arrest and Controversy

Paulino was arrested by DEA special agent Erik Pepen following the confiscation of 1,387

kilos Kilo is a decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting multiplication by one thousand (103). It is used in the International System of Units, where it has the symbol k, in lowercase. The prefix ''kilo'' is derived from the Greek word () ...

of cocaine linked to him on December 19, 2004. The confiscated cocaine had an estimated value of RD$900 million (approx. US$26,400,000). Paulino was extradited to the

for hearings of a drug-smuggling case pending in New Jersey. Paulino's extradition is the first under a newly adopted criminal code in the Dominican Republic, and was the result of a joint investigation involving cooperation between the U.S.

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within th ...

(DEA) and the Dominican Government's National Direction for Drug Control (''Dirección Nacional de Control de Drogas'', or DNCD). The investigation was sponsored by the U.S. Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (

OCDETF The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) is a federal drug enforcement program in the United States, overseen by the Attorney General and the Department of Justice. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, dis ...

Political and Military Links

The depth of Paulino's links to the highest levels of Dominican political parties and military have been of primary concern to law enforcement. Paulino entered the National Army with the rank of 'Sergeant Major' on March 9, 2002. Five months later, former Army Chief General, fired him on August 1, 2002. One year later, on September 10, 2003, after

Jorge Radhamés Zorrilla Ozuna Jorge Radhamés Zorrilla Ozuna ( Guayabo Dulce, born December 16, 1954) is a Dominican lawyer, politician, and retired General of the Dominican Army. He is the President and founder of the Civic Renovation Party. He was Chief of Staff of the ...

replaced Polanco, Paulino was reinstated into the Army, being promoted to First Lieutenant of the National Army by memorandum 32070 signed by former Secretary of the Dominican Armed Forces, Major General General Soto Jiménez following instructions from former president

Hipólito Mejía Rafael Hipólito Mejía Domínguez (born 22 February 1941) is a Dominican politician who served as President of the Dominican Republic from 2000 to 2004. During his presidential term in office the country was affected by one of its worst econ ...

. Paulino's Army record indicates that Zorrilla recommended that he be readmitted into the National Army and promoted. Former Secretary General of the Dominican Armed Forces Major General Soto has since told prosecutors that he did not personally know Paulino. The Dominican newspaper El ''

Listín Diario ''Listín Diario'' (Lit. ''Small Daily List'') is one of the leading newspapers in the Dominican Republic, and the oldest still being published.Comendador, capital of

, he also donated a vehicle to the Municipal Committee of the Dominican Liberation Party Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana and is also known to have made donations to the Christian Social Reformist Party

Partido Reformista Social Cristiano The Social Christian Reformist Party ( es, Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, PRSC) is a Christian democratic right-wing political party in the Dominican Republic. It was established on July 24, 1984, by the union of Joaquín Balaguer's ' ...

politicians in the area. The report points out that Paulino employed engineer Henry Duval, a PLD director, who was director of the INDRHI in

San Juan de la Maguana San Juan de la Maguana is a city and municipality in the western region of the Dominican Republic and capital of the San Juan province. It was one of the first cities established on the island; founded in 1503, and was given the name of San Juan ...

during the 1996-2000

Fernández Fernández () is a Spanish surname meaning "son of Fernando". The Germanic name that it derives from ( Gothic: ''Frið-nanð'') means "brave traveler." The Portuguese version of this surname is Fernandes. The Arabized version is ''Ibn Faranda' ...

Administration as chief of

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

in one of his farms in 2000 when the latter was fired from his government post with the change of government. Duval, after working four years for Paulino, was appointed again to his previous government post by the present government. The newspaper also mentions that Paulino appointed as chief of his veterinarian staff Rafael A. Svelti Hermon, another PLD activist and former director of cattle ranching for the government in San Juan de la Maguana, once he was fired with the change of government in 2000. Hermon was reinstated in his former post when Fernández returned to government on August 16, 2004. He was sworn in as a member of the PRD before the 2004 elections by the brother-in-law of the candidate and then president Hipolito Mejia. In April 2004, Major General Furcy Castellanos, chief of Army Intelligence (J2) revealed that the armed forces alerted former president Mejía that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was on Paulino's trail. He explained that Mejía did not adhere to the recommendations of removing him reportedly because of the proximity of the May elections.

Trial Complications

In February 2005, District Attorney José Manuel Hernández Peguero said that Doris Pujols Ortiz, the judge in charge of the Paulino case in the Dominican Republic has extended the investigative process term given the complexity of the case. The trial against Paulino and other 20 defendants charged with drug trafficking in New York, could begin in September 2006. After Paulino's arrest, more than 60 other Dominicans considered an important part of the network were arrested and later extradited, including Lidio Nin Terrero, Eduardo Rodríguez (Eduardito), Bladimir Garcia Jimenez, José Ramón Ortega, Erwin Mendez, César Bueno, and

Tirso Cuevas Nin Tirso is Spanish and Portuguese for Thyrsus, and usually refers to the saint of that name (Saint Thyrsus) (San Tirso, Santo Tirso). It can also refer to: People * Tirso Cruz III (born 1952), Filipino actor * Tirso de Molina (1579-1648), Spanish p ...

. Most of the group is in prison, some have not contracted attorneys and a few have been released on bail, although with severe restrictions. The U.S. vs Paulino criminal case is being heard in New York’s South District Court by judge

Kimba Wood Kimba Maureen Wood (born January 21, 1944) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Wood has presided over many high-profile cases involving such figures as "Junk Bond Kin ...

. Among the reasons why the judges have denied releasing the majority of the suspects on bail is that they do not have properties in United States which can be presented as guarantee, that they have guarantees in other countries or their country of origin, and that they could possibly escape and become fugitives.Dominican Today, The Quirino Paulino case becomes complicated in NYC, March 6, 2006

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paulino, Quirino 1960 births Living people People from Comendador, Dominican Republic Dominican Republic people imprisoned abroad Dominican Republic drug traffickers Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government Dominican Republic military personnel People extradited from the Dominican Republic People extradited to the United States

Background of the Paulino Organization

Arrest and Controversy

Political and Military Links

Trial Complications

See also

Notes