On January 22, the Dominican National Directorate for Drug Control (the “DNCD”) announced that narcotics officers had just intercepted 1.25 tons of cocaine in the waters southeast of Saona Island, Dominican Republic and arrested four drug trafficking suspects.

At a news conference, a spokesman for the DNCD said that this is one of the Dominican’s largest drug trafficking cases for this year. The drugs were concealed within a speedboat. Among the arrested were three Columbians and one Dominican. It is reported that the drug traffickers had planned to haul the drugs from South America to the United States.

The Dominican Republic is located on the northern part of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola and is one of main channels that drug traffickers use to smuggle drugs produced in Colombia and other countries to the United States and Europe. Last year, the Dominican narcotics department seized and destroyed more than 11 tons of various drugs, most of which was cocaine.