Santo Domingo.-The Minister of the Interior and Police, Faride Raful, expressed this Monday that with the arrests of 11 agents of the National Policeinvolved in the alleged theft of more than 900,000 projectiles from the Weapons Administration, a system of impunity has been broken that has caused justified collective indignation.
“Anyone who tries to tarnish the transparency that we promote through police reform will definitely be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The Public Ministry has already taken its time, identifying the people at this stage and has sufficient evidence to bring them to justice,” he stated.
The official highlighted that this investigation by the Public Ministry began in October, after a joint request from the Ministry of the Interior and Police and the director of the uniformed service, Major General Ramón Guzmán Peralta.
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Raful offered these statements during a press conference with the media after concluding the usual meeting of the Joint Task Force, which is headed by President Luis Abinader on Mondays and which on this occasion was headed by the Vice President of the Republic, Raquel Peña.
For several weeks, the Public Ministry has been investigating several police agents for the theft of thousands of projectiles from that institution that were sold to Haitian criminal gangs and in the neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic, the process of which led to several raids that led to the arrest. on Sunday of eleven police officers.
In the aforementioned operation, which took place over the weekend, more than 200 agents from special units, the Preventive Police and the Central Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DICRIM) participated, along with 40 prosecutors who carried out raids in the National District and in the provinces of Santo Domingo, Santiago, Sánchez Ramírez and Pedernales.
Among those detained are Colonel Narciso Antonio Féliz Romero, in charge of the custody of weapons and ammunition; the deputy mayor Juan Miguel Pérez Soler; Captain Nelson Valdez, responsible for the Weapons Depot; captain and auditor Víctor Manuel Santos, accused of manipulating an audit in February to cover up the theft. In addition, Second Lieutenant Marino Antonio Rodríguez Toribio, gunsmith of the Cibao Central Regional Directorate,
Other key members were also arrested, such as Sergeant Major Miguel Ángel Gómez Espaillat, Corporal Juan Luis Díaz Medina, privates Rubiel Martínez (alias “Escobar”) and Moreibin Medina Pérez, and the accused Miguelina Bello Segura.
The Public Ministry has said that it will request preventive detention against the accused.
