Santo Domingo, DR.
Nor the death last November of the sentenced to 30 years for drug trafficking Manuel Emilio Mesa Beltre “El Gringo”separates it from the name of its rival, Jesus Pascual Cordero Sosa “El Chino”who serves the same sentence for the same crime.
Now their names resurface the death of inmate Alberto Familiaone of those accused of killing Yeri Pascual Cordero Sosa, son of “El Chino” in April 2020 and for whom “El Gringo” would have paid a million pesos.
Yeri and his companion, Jassel Kadafi Estepan Lebrón, died when they were shot inside a SUV, on Avenida 27 de Febrero, almost at the corner of Defilló, when the young man was leaving to celebrate his birthday in a nightclub in the city.
Alberto Familia (Gugu), who was in prison for the double homicide, was strangled in the prison bathroom and the Public Ministry began investigations. He is also in prison for the Pablo José Santos Polanco “Little” case.
By then, the Public Ministry revealed in the investigations that there were other associates such as Manuel Emilio Mesa Beltré “El Gringo”, Gerald Utate Rodríguez, “El Taxiista” and “El Motorista”
Below we recount the records of the drug traffickers “El Gringo” (deceased) and “El Chino”, who is serving a 30-year sentence, in the Anamuya Correction and Rehabilitation Center, in Higüey (La Altagracia province), accused association of malefactors, sponsorship of international drug trafficking and money laundering.
The surprising death of “El Gringo” occurred at the Doctor Rafael J. Mañón hospital, in San Cristóbal, on November 19, 2021, where he was taken seriously from the Najayo prison with kidney complications and died of a heart attack.
“El Chino” feared dying in prison
Jesús Pascual Cordero Martínez had spent a decade and a half in international drug trafficking, he evaded justice on several occasions and in December 2015 he was captured.
His arrest took place in a medical center in the National Districtafter “El Chino” went to treat a diabetes condition and he said he had evaded arrest for fear of dying in prison.
He was subsequently sentenced, together with a Peruvian woman and a National Police corporal, in September 2018 to five years in prison for money laundering as a result of drug trafficking and arms trafficking, by the Collegiate Court of La Altagracia.
Like the last sentence of November 2021, the one on that occasion ordered that a villa in San Cristóbal valued at 15 million pesos and vehicles of the Lexus, Land Cruiser, Hyundai, Kia and Infiniti brands be confiscated. By then, the fortune of Jesús Pascual Cordero was valued at more than 300 million pesos.
The background of the alleged drug trafficker dates back to 2007, when a court filed a file against him due to lack of evidence.
His return to court took around four years, although at that time he was involved in another judicial process, accused of paying RD $300,000 to two assassins to assassinate the former Police sergeant, Reynaldo G. de Jesus (Charly).
By 2011 Cordero Pascual was in preventive detention in Najayo, accused of belonging to a money laundering network; however, in November 2012 he regained his freedom after being ordered by the judge of the Fourth Investigating Court of the National District, Evelyn Torres.
Once released from the prison of the new prison model of Higüey, he was arrested and transferred to the Palace of Justice of Ciudad Nueva accused on this occasion of bribery.
In 2016 his pretrial detention was changed to house arrest due to health problems, when he faced three simultaneous trials for Peruvian drugs, money laundering and a bribe to former prison director Mario Acosta Santos, although for the latter the court discharged the public servant while Cordero he was on the run.
Mode of operation
The sentence issued in 2018 by a court in La Altagracia says that the network that “El Chino” directed brought the drug from Peru to trade it internally in the Dominican Republic.
Likewise, the illicit product was converted into liquid cocaine in a laboratory that operated in the town of Chino in San Cristóbal, according to the accusatory file presented by the Specialized Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Attorney’s Office.
The “Gringo”, by Figueroa Agosto al clash with “El Chino” and his 30 years in prison
The heyday of “El Gringo” (deceased) dates back to the mid-2000s, when he was part of the drug trafficking network of Puerto Rican drug lord José David Figueroa Agosto and, according to the authorities at the time, was linked to the Puerto Rican cartel as one of the of the “main ringleaders”, in charge of managing money laundering through various exchange houses.
Another of the accusations made to him is that he coordinated traffic in the neighborhoods of the northern part of the capital, especially in Capotillo. Because of this, the National Police gave him the nickname “king of micro-trafficking in Santo Domingo.”
It was not until October 2009 that Mesa Beltré was detained for the first time by Dominican authorities when agents of the defunct “Barrio Seguro” citizen security program arrested him on Juana Saltitopa street, in the Villa María sector of the capital, while he was traveling in a BMW vehicle in which more than four million pesos were seized; the reports of the date indicate that at the time of his arrest, the “king of micro-trafficking” would have offered a bribe of RD $ 500,000 in cash in exchange for being allowed to continue his journey, an offer that was rejected by the agents in operation .
As a consequence, the authorities carried out a raid on the “Solano Exchange House”which was designated as the headquarters of his money laundering operation, where around RD$50 million pesos in cash were seized, both in local and foreign currency, which at the time had no legal support.
“El Gringo” served three months in prison in Najayo prison on charges of money laundering and in September 2010 he was sentenced to eight years in prison after being found guilty. In 2011, his conviction was upheld by the appellate court.
At that time, the investigations indicated that Mesa Beltré had a fortune in movable and immovable property that reached 800 million pesos.
In 2011, Mesa Beltré attacked the person in charge of the section of the National Directorate for Drug Control (DNCD) in Najayo prison, breaking his arm.
Mesa Beltré threatened to kill officer Orlando Stephan de la Rosa and his family. The DNCD reported at the time that the attack occurred after an argument in which the inmate demanded the return of a television that had been seized from him for investigation purposes.
Already by 2014, after the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Appeal of the National District ordered the conditional release of the then accused, valid for three years, eight months and 15 days, which was precisely the time remaining to serve his sentence. initial.
Second arrest and sentence to 30 years
The authorities arrested “Gringo” again just two years after his release on parole, when he was accused of sponsoring an international drug trafficking network that recruited mules for his activities and days later he was sentenced to one year of preventive detention in La Victoria prison.
On May 8, 2018, the First Collegiate Court of the Santo Domingo province sentenced him to 30 years in prison and the payment of a fine of RD$5 million after being found guilty of “directing a criminal organization that was dedicated to the international trafficking of drugs and money laundering”, after the investigations established that Beltré managed an international criminal organization that had been operating for years from the Las Américas International Airport.
Another of his links in the world of drugs was with César Emilio Peralta (the Abuser)considered as the “Dominican Pablo Escobar” by international agencies.
The Dominican authorities, in 2019, indicated that for more than 20 years “César El Abusador” was involved in the drug business in the country and the United States, beginning as a member of the criminal organizations of known drug traffickers of the past such as Rolando Florián Happy, Pascual Cordero Martínez (El Chino), Manuel Mesa Beltré (El Gringo), and Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo.