Blue Jays: Ex-pitcher implicated in Dominican drug scheme

Former Blue Jay reliever Octavio Dotel has been implicated in a Dominican drug trafficking and money laundering scheme, and it doesn’t look good for the 45-year-old.

Do you ever find yourself wondering, “whatever happened to (insert player here)?”. I’ll admit that I’m the nostalgic type, especially when it comes to former Blue Jays.

One name I hadn’t seen in awhile was Octavio Dotel, who pitched in Toronto during the 2011 season as a 37-year-old near the end of his career. Unfortunately, his name wasn’t in the headlines for anything positive, as it turns out that he’s in big trouble in the Dominican Republic.

According to Attorney Jean Alain Rodriguez, both Dotel and fellow former big leaguer Luis Castillo have been implicated in a drug trafficking and money laundering scheme.

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It was no small operation from the sound of things, whether or not the former ballplayers were involved or not, but Alain Rodriguez mentioned that, “Eighteen other people are linked to this network, including athletes and baseball players Octavio Dotel and Luis Castillo”, according to the statement published in the New York Daily News.

The group in question is apparently led by “Cesar the Abuser”, who has yet to be captured as of this writing, but is believed to be the figure head of a pretty big operation that even reportedly brought drugs from the Dominican into the United States. The situation is serious enough that Federal agencies were involved, including the FBI.

Unfortunately this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an ex-Blue Jay get in trouble with the law, as Estaban Loaiza plead guilty to possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, and was sentenced to three years in jail back in March of this year. Dotel is likely looking at a similar fate, although it remains to be seen how this will all shake down.

Regardless, it’s an unfortunate fall from grace for the 15 year MLB veteran. For a guy who made more than 40 million during his playing career, it’s a real shame to see his name back in headlines because of something like this.