The Collegiate Court of Montecristi sentenced a man arrested “in flagrante delicto” last year to 10 years in prison when transporting 27 immigrants on a bus undocumented Haitians by the municipality of San Fernando de Montecristi.
The court passed judgment against Reynaldo Villavicenciowho was arrested on May 16, 2021 in the El Vigiador community, near kilometer 17 on the road to the aforementioned municipality.
According to the file, his arrest occurred after he was surprised by members of the Army of the Dominican Republic (ERD), who upon searching the vehicle he was driving, realized that inside he was transporting Haitians in an irregular condition.
During the judicial process, the Montecristi Prosecutor’s Office, represented by the prosecutors Yohanny Herrera and Ybelca Castillo, said that it provided sufficient evidence with which it demonstrated that the defendant incurred in migrant smuggling.
Judges Mercedes Reyes Jerez (president), Yaqueline Toribio and Wendis Taveras accepted the accusation of the Public Ministry and handed down the conviction for the violation of article 2 of Law 137-03, on Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons, and ordered that he serve his sentence in the Montecristi public prison.
