detect it happening there, but here we can see the narcotics traffickers covertly infiltrating the banking system, political parties and the media." During December 1999 Castillo stood beside U.S. officials in Santo Domingo and announced the seizure of three drug-transporting planes owned by Mexican drug lord Luis Horacio Cano, a man indicted on 57 counts of narcotrafficking and convicted in U.S. federal court. According to a statement released by Castillo in March 2006, drug trafficking heightened its infiltration of the Dominican political parties and the Armed Forces because of the “paradise” and protection provided during Hipólito Mejía’s presidency (2000–2004), but the current authorities firmly fight it. In that regard, Castillo mentioned the 1,300 kilos of cocaine seized in December 2004 in the case against the ex-Army captain Quirino Paulino, who was extradited to the United States. Conflicts Since 2005 Castillo has represented Ramón Báez Figueroa in the criminal proceedings for the US$2.7 billion embezzlement case which led to the collapse of the bank Baninter and unleashed the events causing one of the Dominican Republic's worst financial crisis in its history. The defunct Baninter's fraud cost the Dominican taxpayers more than RD$70 billion. On December 19, 2005, Castillo made a RD$1 million check out to senator Hernani Salazar, to cover the civil damages ratified by the Supreme Court in a defamation lawsuit. The payment of the damages stems from Salazar’s case against Vincho, after the attorney publicly accused the heavyweight congressman of being linked to drug-trafficking suspect Quirino Paulino, via the ex-colonel Pedro Julio "Pepe" Goico, in a transaction of a US$1.8 million Colibri helicopter. Notes 20th-century Dominican Republic lawyers Dominican Party politicians Social Christian Reformist Party politicians National Progressive Force politicians Presidents of political parties in the Dominican Republic Dominican Republic people of Canarian descent White Dominicans 1931 births Living people Candidates for President of the Dominican Republic 21st-century Dominican Republic lawyers