( CNN ) -- Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez continues to shuffle his top military commanders as he tries to make good on his recent promise to cleanse the government of corruption . Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez has faced political pressure to act on government corruption . After firing 700 police officers and forcing the retirement of 31 military and police generals Sunday , Fernandez on Monday removed more generals and reassigned others . The government also has announced that more than 535 members of the nation 's 24,000-strong military have been forced out in the past six months due to their suspected involvement in the drug trade . Among the generals forced to retire was the former head of the nation 's top anti-drug agency , the Dominican National Drug Control , known by its Spanish acronym DNCD . In his state-of-the-nation speech Friday , Fernandez said , `` In the Dominican Republic -- listen well -- narcotrafficking will not pass . '' Despite the president 's strong words , many Dominican citizens and outside analysts said narcotrafficking already has taken hold . `` The situation in the Dominican Republic is that organizations that are supposedly involved in fighting corruption and narcotrafficking are involved in it , '' said Tomas Castro Monegro , an anti-corruption attorney for 25 years in Santo Domingo , the capital . Tobias Friedl , a regional manager for Latin America at Washington-based iJET Intelligent Risk Systems , which helps companies assess and deal with dangers abroad , said , `` The security forces -- the army and the police -- have been corrupted . '' The Dominican government generally carries out military promotions and retirements on February 27 , the day in which the nation celebrates its 1844 declaration of independence from Haiti . But this year 's numbers are unprecedented , Castro said . In 1978 , he said , 48 generals were let go -- some for perceived corruption , others for political reasons . But Castro said he never has seen 700 police officers fired or more than 500 military personnel relieved of their duties . `` In the majority of cases , '' he said , `` there has to be something linking that person to narcotrafficking or corruption in general . '' National police chief Rafael Guzman addressed his force Monday , admonishing them not to cave in to the many temptations they face . `` Today , more than ever , harassed by increasingly demanding challenges that jump out from all sides , just when drug trafficking persists in crippling society , it 's time for all police agents and officers , the men and women of our dear institution ... to raise our chest , since this is the moment to define ourselves . We 're with the nation or we 're against it , '' he was quoted as saying in the Dominican Today and Listin Diario newspaper Web sites . Castro and others said police and the military have been involved in organized crime `` for a long time . '' The evidence lies in the lavish lifestyles many of these officials are able to sustain on a public salary , they said . `` They live in contradiction with their salaries , '' Castro said . `` They live in houses that cost millions of pesos and drive big vehicles . '' Corrupt officials prefer to work in customs , at the airport and the border and in anti-drug units , the lawyer said . They receive bribes from traffickers , Castro said , and also profit by arresting people involved in the drug trade and taking their possessions . Castro , a well-known attorney in a nation of less than 10 million , has represented drug suspects and has argued cases before the Dominican Supreme Court . In 2000 , a published report said , he filed a suit against Fernandez alleging padded road-construction contracts . Friedl , the risk analyst , notes that Caribbean routes for drug shipments have diminished due to strong interdiction efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard . The majority of shipments now travel through Mexico , Costa Rica and Panama , he said . However , Friedl and others said , the drug trade still flourishes in the Dominican Republic . `` The Dominican Republic is not a major drug-producing country , but it acts as a transit point for cocaine , heroin , marijuana and ecstasy bound for the United States and Europe , '' said Jane 's Sentinel Security Assessment , a publication that offers country-by-country risk analysis . `` The main trafficking routes are by sea from South America , and the drugs are then transferred by go-fast boats to islands such as Puerto Rico and St. Martin , on the way to the U.S. '' The indexmundi Web site , which offers analyses on nations worldwide , said the Dominican Republic has become `` a trans-shipment point for ecstasy from the Netherlands and Belgium destined for the U.S. and Canada . '' Jane 's and indexmundi point out that substantial money-laundering also takes place in the Dominican Republic . Deteriorating conditions in Haiti , with which the Dominican Republic shares a 193-mile border , have led traffickers to go next door . `` Haiti was the place where drugs used to come through , '' Friedl said . `` Some of this now has shifted to the Dominican Republic . '' Drug use in the Dominican Republic also has shifted . Ramon Cruz Benzan , a reporter for the Listin Diario newspaper who has been covering corruption cases , relates what many Dominicans say : `` Before , it used to come in and it would go . Now , it 's not like that . It comes in and it stays . '' Friedl points out that tourism creates a demand for drugs . `` Tourism is a huge thing in the Dominican Republic . Local consumption has definitely gone up . '' And large Dominican communities in the United States and Puerto Rico `` create a natural connection '' for drug smuggling into those countries , Friedl said . Federal officials in New York have been battling -- and indicting -- Dominican natives on drug charges for years . Some observers see Fernandez 's crackdown as a sign that he is getting serious . `` Fernandez is trying to weed out corruption , '' said Chris Kimble , a Latin America analyst also with iJET Intelligent Risk Systems . Others , such as the lawyer Castro , said Fernandez was forced to act after public outcry concerning the shootings deaths in August of seven Colombians in a drug-related case . A high-level commission appointed by Fernandez concluded that low- and midlevel officials from the national police were involved . But many Dominicans said they believe higher-ranking officers were responsible and the political pressure has been mounting on Fernandez to act . And many observers do n't expect this will be the last of it .
President Leonel Fernandez fires 700 police officers in Dominican Republic . He shuffles more commanders after forcing retirement of 31 military , police generals . Fernandez vows in a state-of-the-nation speech to rid the government of corruption . Fernandez says , `` Listen well -- narcotrafficking will not pass ''