The detention of four employees of the General Directorate of Customs (DGA), including an Army sergeant, revealed the existence of an international drug trafficking structure that operated from the Cibao International Airportin Santiago.
Those arrested were identified as Harrison Antonio PaulinoRonaldo Rodríguez Durán, Ramón Antonio Rodríguez and the Army sergeant Sequiel Segura Alcántarawho worked in the area of monitoring, inspection and security of the air terminal.
According to the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) and the Prosecutor’s Office Pursuit Drugs Santiago Narcotics, the network recruited travelers in the United States to transport marijuana to the Dominican Republicusing the airports, mainly Santiago, as an entry point.
How did the drug trafficking network operate at Cibao Airport?
The internal complicity allowed manipulate processes review, divert attention and bypass security checks that would normally be impenetrable without support from within.
The structure began to be dismantled in June 2025when authorities seized 60 packages of marijuana (61.1 pounds) during a trespass in an apartment at the Green Thomas Residential, in the Villa María sector, El Rosal.
“The place functioned as a collection and packaging center, where the drugs were organized in five prepared suitcases to avoid detection,” the institution explained in the press release.
The operation also involved a firearm and cashconfirming that it was not an isolated event, but rather an already established scheme.
For this case he is in prison alleged ringleader of the network, Victor Founder, arrested in June during the first actions of the investigation.
Operational
After several months of intelligence work, the Prosecutor’s Officethe DNCD and the DGA executed a joint operation at the airport that ended with the arrest of the four employees.
The authorities maintain that these made the passage easier of the shipments without activating alarms, guaranteeing that the drugs entered the country to be distributed in different provinces of Cibao.
The detainees will be subjected to justice for violation of Law 50-88 about Drugs and Controlled Substances, while authorities deepen the investigation to determine the real scope of the scheme and the possible participation of other collaborators within the air terminals.
