The prosecuting body has requested the imposition of preventive detention and a declaration of complexity of the process
San Pedro de Macoris.- He Public Prosecutor’s Office filed with the Permanent Attention Office of the judicial district of San Pedro de Macorís, the request for coercive measure against the councilor of this municipality, Walky Cuevas Charles and Pamela Violeta Astacio, alias “Melvin Gato”, for their participation in the drug trafficking and money laundering network led by the accused Yúnior Santos Restrepo.
In the request for coercive measures, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has asked the court to impose eight months of preventive detention for both defendants and to declare the process complex.
The arrest of Cuevas Charles and Astacio on September 3 is part of the continuation of the investigation carried out jointly by the Public Ministry, the National Directorate of Drug Control (DNCD) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States, through which in a first phase Santos Restrepo was arrested, along with several of his accomplices in this criminal organization that operates in the eastern and southern regions of the country, introducing large quantities of drugs and controlled substances through the coasts of San Pedro de Macorís and Barahona and later sending them to the United States and Europe.
In the Public Prosecutor’s Office document, prepared based on the results of the investigation led by the interim head of the Specialized Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prosecutor’s Office, Ramona Nova Cabrera, together with prosecutors Manuel Santiago Castro Lora, together with the interim head prosecutor of the San Pedro de Macorís Prosecutor’s Office, Suleyka Mateo Torre, the court attorney, Manuel Santiago Castro Lora and the prosecutor José Manuel Calzado, Cuevas Charles and de Astacio actively participated in the money laundering activities of said criminal network.
Both defendants used the profits obtained from said illegal activity, under the orders of Santos Restrepo, who is in preventive detention and to whom the prosecuting body filed a formal accusation on April 16, to acquire luxurious and expensive movable and immovable property, as well as to establish businesses with which to give an appearance of legality to the profits obtained illegally.
Among the actions carried out by Cuevas Charles with this criminal network, which introduced more than 300 million pesos into the national economic system, is the transportation of considerable amounts of cash from drug trafficking, under instructions from Santos Restrepo, which he delivered to the latter’s mother, the fugitive Diana Patricia Restrepo Nader.
Cuevas Charles was also responsible for acquiring, with money from drug trafficking activities, goods and assets for the benefit of Santos Restrepo and his family, as well as transforming part of the acquired funds into other assets, specifically vehicles that he later delivered to the accused.
As for Astacio, his responsibilities included receiving money from the sale of drugs and controlled substances in the United States, which he transferred to the Dominican Republic, to Santos Restrepo or to third parties, for use by the criminal organization.
Astacio also attempted to conceal, for the benefit and profit of the accused Santos Restrepo, assets that have already been seized by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Authorities also collected incriminating evidence during raids at the homes of both defendants.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has given the provisional legal qualification for participation in an organized crime group, which is classified and punished in article 4 letter E, 5-A, 6-A, 7, 75 Paragraph II and 85 letters a, b and c, of Law 50-88 on drugs and controlled substances, in the category of traffickers, as well as article 2 numeral 26, 3 numerals 1, 2 and 3, article 4 numerals 7 and 9 and article 9 numerals 1 and 2 of Law 155-17, which classifies and punishes the criminal offense of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
