SANTO DOMINGO.- A report submitted to the Armed Forces Ministry (FFAA) would have confirmed that several airplanes seized in drug trafficking operations and taken to San Isidro Airbase have been dismantled and their parts sold to companies abroad, the news site Clave Digital says.
The planes, almost all of Colombian or Venezuelan registry, were confiscated with cocaine shipments in the 1990s and the start of 2000.
Although Dominican Air Force (FAD) investigators found that most of the airplanes engines, undercarriages and other parts are missing, no one has been penalized and no charges have been filed agaisnt the officers assigned to guard them. The report says at least 8 of the 12 aircraft deposited in San Isidro were totally dismantled and the parts were taken out of the military facility.
Clave Digital said its reporters confirmed that at least four landing gears and two engines were sold to a company in Puerto Rico, by several FAD officers, whereas other parts were negotiated in Miami, Venezuela and Colombia, as well as to companies linked to air navigation in the country.
"The authorities have always had knowledge of that situation, investigations after investigations have been made, but nobody has been sanctioned nor charges filed," said an official in charge of investigating the case.
Clave Digital said its reporters who went to the area where the airplanes are parked confirmed that the airplanes have become scrap, with no engines, instrument panels or undercarriages.
None of the senior military staff wanted to comment, alleging that its an issue of the Armed Forces Ministry, whose chief, General Ramon Aquino has yet to issue a statement.
Several major scandals have rocked the Dominican military in the last few months, including the sale of two stolen A-37 Dragonfly jet engines and cost-ballooning in the construction of buildings in military bases.
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