Last month, the Dominican Republic was officially labeled by the United States as a “major drug transit or major illicit drug-producing” country in a memorandum released by the Biden Administration.
Although the inclusion of the DR in the “Memorandum on the Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2025” is a step in the right direction in combating transnational criminal organizations, it may be too little too late. In recent years, the DR has quietly become a paradise for the transit of narcotics to the U.S. and Europe.
Dominican officials downplayed the designation, accusing the U.S. of trying to “tarnish” the country’s public image. One official called on Dominican President Luis Abinader to respond to the Biden Administration to prevent the DR from being viewed as a “narco-state.”
Last week, the Dominican National Directorate of Drug Control (DNCD), in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), United States Southern Command and Colombian authorities, successfully identified and dealt a blow to a transnational drug trafficking network operating in and out of the DR in what they called Operation Buffalo NK.
In the lead up to the joint operation, authorities discovered that drugs were being transported from South American countries, such as Colombia and Venezuela, to the Dominican Republic, where they were then shipped to Puerto Rico, the United States, and Europe.
Separately, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s plane was seized in the DR. Maduro was charged with drug trafficking and corruption by the U.S. Department of Justice in March 2020, and has faced increased questioning over the use of his plane. An unusually high number of flights from Venezuela to the DR and other drug trafficking hubs in the region were documented ahead of the plane’s seizure.
The Caribbean’s Cocaine Hub
The State Department’s 2023 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) notes that most cocaine transiting the Caribbean passes through the Dominican Republic, primarily via maritime routes. From 2020 to 2023, the DNCD seized over 103 tons of controlled substances.
The DR’s strategic location—close to the U.S. and with direct shipping lanes to Europe—makes it a major transit point for South American transnational criminal organizations. Smugglers use “go-fast” boats to transport narcotics from Colombia and Venezuela, bypassing Dominican authorities.
Much of this activity is concentrated in the Santo Domingo province; between 2019 and 2022, the DNCD seized over 25,000 kilos of cocaine. The province’s uninhabited beaches allow easy unpacking for smugglers, who then use various methods to move narcotics to the U.S. and Europe. While some use drug mules on commercial flights or continue via maritime routes, the primary method is shipping containers—especially through the port of Caucedo, the Caribbean’s second-largest port.
Dominican Corruption Engenders Drug Trafficking
The Port of Caucedo on the southern coast of the DR is the epicenter of the country’s drug smuggling. Its strategic position offers direct shipping lanes to much of the Western Hemisphere and Europe, enabling smugglers to hide narcotics among goods in shipping containers headed for major hubs.
Corruption among Dominican port authorities severely weakens anti-smuggling efforts. According to Arean Varela of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), officials can be bribed up to $10,000 to “go to the bathroom for three minutes at the right moment.” In early 2022, the arrest of five officials connected to the seizure of over 242 packages of cocaine underscored the depth of port corruption.
Judicial to Justice
The Dominican Public Ministry, which is charged with spearheading the fight against government corruption, has come under increased scrutiny regarding its “lack of independence”. Last November, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) referred the Public Ministry “to the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers” due to its inability to conclude that the Dominican justice system as “independent and impartial.”
The WGAD also expressed further concerns over Dominican prosecutors’ excessive use of preventive detention, which was evident in 98% of all proposed coercive measures within the first four months of 2023.
As a result of judicial measures like the Public Ministry’s “98%” rule, the Dominican penitentiary system has been pushed to the brink of collapse. Currently, according to the Dominican National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH-DR), 80% of prisoners in the DR are held under preventive detention. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has identified this as the main cause of the severe overcrowding in prisons across the DR. Consequently, this has led to appalling living conditions for prisoners, as documented in the National Public Defense Office’s (ONDP) 2023 Prison and Detention Report.
The Dominican government has made it clear that it prefers to direct resources toward intensifying preventive detention by constructing another preventive detention center, rather than addressing the surge in illicit trafficking.
This latest memorandum adds to a series of press releases and meetings from State Department officials, emphasizing the need for a stronger commitment from the Dominican government to support U.S. and regional priorities. However, the Biden Administration continues to send mixed messages. For the Dominican Republic to fulfill its role as a regional leader, consistent pressure from the State Department and the Biden Administration is essential.