July 27–August 3, 2000

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"We never asked anybody to do anything wrong"

The Dominican Revolutionary Party is still an active socialist organization in Philadelphia, serving the Dominican community back home by raising funds in the United States.

Party leaders blanche at allegations that the PRD was involved in organized drug running.

"Mr. Pena Gomez answered those questions," says Philadelphia PRD official Dante Sanchez. "He said [the allegation that drugs were sold in Philadelphia and elsewhere to raise money for the party] was a lie." Pena Gomez took the controversy to his grave when he died in 1998, at age 61.

Sanchez acknowledges that drugs are a big problem in Philadelphia’s Dominican community, and that some party members may have sold drugs, but never with the blessing of the party.

"The Dominican population is growing," he says. "Some Dominicans, like every other nationality, sell drugs. That didn’t come with the approval of the party. Some can be selling drugs and sympathize with the party, but that does not mean the party is giving its approval of those activities. We never asked someone to sell drugs just to support the party."

Sanchez scoffs at the investigations conducted by John McLaughlin and other law enforcement investigators who were probing links between drug sales and the PRD.

"Was Pena Gomez at the meeting [that was surveilled]?" he asks. "No. Someone can do something without approval or knowledge. Maybe nobody knows where the money comes from. We raise money from all the Dominicans. We asked them to give to us. We weren’t told where it came from. Maybe we don’t know the business. When you send someone to the street to ask for money for the church, you don’t know what car stops and puts money in that bottle."

Sanchez adds that, despite investigations by a number of agencies, individuals like Daniel Croussett, a respected grocery owner, were never charged with any crimes.

Arturo Rojas, president of the Philadelphia, Camden and Allentown chapter of the PRD, agrees with Sanchez that the party never asked anyone to sell drugs to raise campaign funds.

Speaking in Spanish and translated by Sanchez, Rojas says: "We never, never asked anybody to do anything wrong to support the party."

The PRD is still active in campaign funding, Sanchez says. "We raised money for [current Dominican President Hipolito] Mejia. A lot of people went there [from the United States] to vote. We contributed to the success of Mr. Mejia."

Sanchez could not say how much money was raised by the local PRD chapter for Meija’s campaign.

Daniel Croussett is still active in party politics, his store sporting a number of PRD decals. When asked last week to speak about the PRD and the BNI investigation and allegations, Croussett politely said he will be happy to answer phone calls later.

Nearly a dozen calls to his store later, Croussett is still not talking.

Sanchez warns that the Dominican community will likely be unhappy with this story.

"Oh boy," says Sanchez, himself a journalist who was recently heavily criticized by the Dominican government for a less-than-flattering story he wrote. "When The Public Record wrote that Dominicans are drug dealers, there were protests. You can expect the same."

—Howard Altman