US embassy cable - 03SANTODOMINGO6424

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 006424 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CAR (MCISAAC), L/LEI (W FUENTES, GUILANI 
AND SULLIVAN) 
JUSTICE FRO CRIM/OIA J. MAZUREK AND R. GOLDMAN 
US MARSHAL SERVICE PLEASE PASS TO C. DUDLEY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CJAN, KCRM, KFRD, PINR, SNAR, DR 
SUBJECT: GODR EXTRADITES TWO FUGITIVES (TEJADA, RODOLFO AND 
ESTEVEZ, FRANCISCO JOSE) 
 
REF: A. 02 STATE 097980 
 
     B. 01 STATE 187181 
 
1.  On November 4, 2003, Rodolfo Tejada and Francisco Jose 
Estevez were extradited from the Dominican Republic in the 
company of US Marshals.  Tejada is wanted to stand trial on 
federal narcotics charges.  Upon arrival on a flight from 
Santo Domingo to Miami International Airport, U.S. Department 
of Homeland Security Officials (then Customs) searched 
Tejada's bag and found 5,700 MDMA tablets hidden in two 
compact disc portfolios.  Mr. Tejada was arrested, failed to 
appear at trial and fled to the Dominican Republic. 
Francisco Jose Estevez pleaded guilty to federal narcotics 
charges on July 19, 2001, in the Eastern District of New 
York.  He violated the terms of his bail by traveling to the 
Dominican Republic.  The Dominican Republic's National Drug 
Control Directorate (DNCD), working with US Marshals and DEA, 
arrested Tejada in April 2003, and Estevez in June 2003. 
 
2.  These are the seventh and eighth extraditions by the 
Dominican Republic in 2003, and the forty-second and 
forty-third under the administration of President Hipolito 
Mejia. 
HERTELL