Dominican agents break up ecstasy pill lab
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Anti-drug agents in the Dominican Republic say they have dismantled a synthetic drug laboratory and arrested five people.
Abel Rojas is a spokesman for the Caribbean country's National Drug Control Directorate. He says the clandestine drug lab in the northern town of Villa Gonzalez made ecstasy, or MDMA.
Rojas says investigators believe the pills were smuggled to the U.S. and Europe.
Authorities say the purported ecstasy ring was led by a 54-year-old Dominican who had been deported from the U.S. after serving a drug trafficking sentence. Also arrested was a Colombian who allegedly oversaw the drug lab and a Lebanese suspect who mixed the chemicals to make the drug. Two other Dominicans were also arrested.
The Dominican anti-drug agency did not release the names of the five suspects.
