Santo Domingo.– The ex first lieutenant Carlos E. Rossó Pena, discharged from the Navy on August 2008 for having links with drug trafficking, is the other ex military officer who together with lieutenant commander Miguel Antonio Suárez Silfa in whose extradition was requested by the United States, said a listin.com.do source Tuesday night.

Yesterday the Presidency’s Adviser on narcotics, Marino Vinicio (Vincho) Castillo, revealed that seven months ago Puerto Rico’s authorities had requested the extradition of the Navy officers.

The source said the dismissal of those officers, at the end of vice admiral Julio Cesar Ventura Bayonet’s command, resulted from intelligence that they were linked to the trafficking of drugs towards the United States, via Puerto Rico, using their military rank.

Rossó is said to have strong links with the group of officers implicated in the murder of seven Colombians in Paya, for which an arrest warrant was issued against him for shipping drugs to United States territory.

The source said it’s very probable Rossó has left the country. He was in the same class as Suárez, who turned himself in voluntarily after the U.S. made the request in extradition.

Suárez was arraigned together with other defendants in San Juan Federal Court in February.

Also discharged in that occasion were the lieutenant commanders Amílcar Rafael Soto Candelario, Beethoven Matías, the first lieutenant Jonathan Jose Jiménez, the second lieutenant Alonso Ferrera Mercedes and the ensigns Rafael Montero Matos, Francisco Tejada Ramirez and Francisco Valera González, who were stationed in different parts of the country’s East region.

Yesterday Justice minister Radhamés Jiménez said the Supreme Court issued the warrant to arrest an ex Navy officer for extradition, although the source couldn’t establish if it’s the same case.

The United States embassy said it works closely with the Dominican Government to fight crime and international drug trafficking, using all the tools at its disposition.

Suárez, now being held in Puerto Rico, had left the country after his father, a rear admiral, had found out that an arrest warrant had been issued against his son on drug trafficking charges.