The 19 arrested under the Operation Squid prepare to spend the first night in prisonafter being arrested at dawn on Saturday, when -after months of investigation- the Office of the Special Prosecutor for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca) simultaneously carried out some 40 raids in the National District, Santo Domingo and other provinces of the country.
And it is that, far from the comfort of their homes, the group, led by former ministers González Castillo, Donald Guerrero and Jose Ramon Peraltasave prison in the jail on the fourth floor of the National District Prosecutor’s Office. They will remain there until they are taken before the Permanent Attention Court so that the Public Ministry requests a measure of coercion against them.
the little one prison It has restricted access and is guarded by Prison Surveillance and Treatment (VTP) agents, who also have their bedrooms on the fourth floor. In 2020, it underwent a refurbishment process.
During the course of the afternoon, the presence of families and friends of the detainees has been almost nil; only some lawyers have gone up to jail. In front of the Prosecutor’s Office, a group of men lit candles in defense of Gonzalo Castillowho in the management of Danilo Medina was head of the Minister of Public Works and was a presidential candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).
Lawyer Carlos Escalante, who went up to visit Ángel Lockward, the last to be arrested, said the group was in good spirits.
Theft exceeds all cases together
The Public Ministry preliminarily accuses those involved of criminal association, embezzlement, coalition of officials, falsification of documents, bribery and illicit campaign financing amounting to RD$19,000 million.
These figures exceed the alleged embezzlement of the previous cases of Medusa, Antipulpo, Coral, Coral 5G and Operation 13, which amount to some RD$15,000 million, according to data from the Pepca.
The others linked so far
In addition to Castillo, Guerrero and Peralta, the others linked to the Operation Squid They are the former controller, Daniel Omar Caamaño; the former director of the State Sugar Council (CEA), Luis Miguel Piccirilo; former director of the National Cadastre, Claudio Silver Peña, and former directors of Casinos and Gambling, Oscar Chalas Guerrero and Julián Omar Fernández.
Also, Roberto Santiago Moquete, Agustín Mejía Ávila, Emil Dávila Fernández, Marcial Reyes, Alejandro Constanzo, Yahaira Brito Encarnación and Ana Linda Fernández.
