The Public Ministry will bring three men to justice, including one who was convicted in 2017 for being a member of the dangerous “Eastern Drug Cartel”, who are involved in an international drug trafficking network linked to the seizure of 136 packages of cocaine that were transported on a boat bound for Puerto Rico, along the coast of the province of La Altagracia.
The accused are Francis Román de la Rosa, Hilario Sánchez Montero and Arquímedes de Jesús Batista Cruz, the latter sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2017 for directing the aforementioned cartel, after being arrested in 2015 along with other members, from whom 285 packages of cocaine were seized.
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According to authorities, the Eastern Drug Cartel is considered one of the most powerful criminal organizations operating in the Eastern region of the Dominican Republic, managing to send large shipments of cocaine to Puerto Rico, the United States and Europe.
Batista Cruz’s criminal record
Arquímedes de Jesús Batista Cruz, sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2017, would have obtained freedom after serving half of his sentence, through a request for conditional freedom granted by a judge of the Execution of the Sentence, taking into account the time that has elapsed since the imposition of the coercive measure. According to records, by 2024 the time required for said benefit had already been served.
Details of the current case
In the most recent case, the defendants Francis Román de la Rosa, Hilario Sánchez Montero and Arquímedes de Jesús Batista Cruz were arrested after being intercepted by the coast guard, when they were allegedly trying to transport a significant shipment of narcotic substances to the neighboring island of Puerto Rico.
The authorities activated action protocols after receiving intelligence reports that warned about several men aboard a suspicious vessel. Air, sea and land units were immediately deployed, which began a chase that lasted several hours.
Finally, the fishing vessel was intercepted several nautical miles east of the municipality of Higüey, with three men on board and eight packages, containing a total of 136 packages of a substance presumably cocaine.
During the operation, a 28-foot-long boat was seized, equipped with two outboard motors of 85 horsepower each, as well as 16 jugs of fuel, a refrigerator with water and food, two cell phones, life jackets and other evidence.
Those arrested were handed over to the Public Ministry, which in the next few hours will present the request for a coercive measure before a judge from the La Altagracia Permanent Attention Office, to Francis Román de la Rosa, Hilario Sánchez Montero and Arquímedes de Jesús Batista Cruz, for drug trafficking established in the Law on Controlled Substances.
The 136 packages of the alleged drug were sent under chain of custody to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF), where the exact type and weight of the shipment will be determined.
First case against Batista Cruz, designated head of the “Eastern Drug Cartel”
In 2017, the judges of the Collegiate Court of El Seibo, Milagros Ramona Bermúdez (president), Meraldo Antonio Rincón and Milagros Carmona, sentenced Arquímedes de Jesús Batista Cruz (alias Cibao), identified as the leader of the Eastern Drug Cartel, to 15 years in prison, after being found guilty of trafficking large quantities of cocaine to Florida, via Puerto Rico.
In addition to Batista Cruz, José Turbidez Páez and Michael Peralta, both residents of Miches, were also sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Cruz Santana Amparo and Wellington Antonio Pérez (alias Keko) received sentences of eight years in prison.
In that operation, the authorities seized 285 packages of cocaine on the coast of Miches, which led to several raids both in that municipality and in Santiago.
Investigations by the Public Ministry established that the cartel had been operating in Miches for years, receiving drugs from Colombia and Mexico, and then sending them to the United States, mainly through Puerto Rico.
After serving his sentence, it was expected that Batista Cruz would be requested for extradition by the Puerto Rican authorities to respond to charges related to drug trafficking, although at this time it is unknown if said request was formalized.
