U.S. Commercial attaché Crishtopher Lambert cited the State Department report International Narcotics Control Strategy 2010 which states that “the contraband of wads of money in cash using messengers and the use electronic currency transfers are the main methods to transfer illicit funds from the United States to Dominican Republic.”

“Once in Dominican Republic the currency exchange houses, the money remitters, the real estate and housing construction companies, and the casinos are commonly used to facilitate the laundering of illicit funds,” says the report, as cited b the U.S. diplomat

Lambert said the report reveals that in December 2009, more than 20 properties worth millions of dollars were seized from a Spanish citizen linked to an international trafficking network which used the country to launder hundreds of millions of dollars.

The diplomat, invited to speak in the monthly luncheon of the American Chamber of Commerce, said the United States will give priority to the war on drug trafficking, money laundering, trafficking with people and collaborate with the country to halt the spread of cholera, adding that it will disburse 30 million dollars to help the country fight drug trafficking during the next three years.

Policy of the US

Lambert said the U.S. policy toward Dominican Republic includes the creation of clean energy, job opportunities, citizen security and good governance, adding that the country’s main deficit is the electrical sector, for which the aid aims to make it more efficient, making it attractive to investment.

Here are some of the developments based on drug money