The bullet-riddled bodies of seven men were discovered on Tuesday along a drug-smuggling route south of the Dominican capital, authorities said.Police said the victims, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, were found dumped with their hands tied together alongside a road near Ojo de Agua, a village about 40 miles (65 km) south of Santo Domingo.One was identified as Jesus David del Rio, a 28-year-old Colombian. An eighth man, identified as a Nicaraguan citizen, suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach but managed to escape the gangland-style killing, a Dominican police report said.The report said four of the victims were kidnapped by heavily armed gunmen in military-style camouflage uniforms who dragged them out of a house on Monday night in Banfi, near Ojo de Agua.The kidnappers were later seen hauling several large bundles that they had removed from the back of a truck parked near the house, police said.No arrests have been made. But officials with the government's National Directorate for the Control of Drugs said the killings were believed to be a "settling of accounts" between rival narcotics traffickers.They said the southern coastal region where the bodies were found is a popular drop-off point for cocaine smuggled out of South America en route to the United States.The U.S. State Department ranks the Dominican Republic as a leading transshipment point for Colombian cocaine making its way to the United States and other markets overseas.
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