The accused in the Operation Panthera 7, Linked to the seizure of 9.8 tons of cocaine in the Caucedo Multimodal Port in December 2024, it is already in the permanent care office of Santo Domingo Este, Where, for the third time, we will try to know the request for coercion measure submitted by the Public Ministry against him.
Among them are José Nicolás Castillo Hart (a) “Nikito”; Winston Armando Tejera Rodríguez (a) “Barbikin”; Cristian Rayner Canela Aybar; Nelson Neftalí Mercedes Lugo; Dulvi Jesús de los Santos; Enriquillo Luis Brito and Enrique José Luis Britowho arrived at the court aboard a bus, with protective helmets, bulletproof vests and guarded by multiple agents of the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) and of the high -risk transfer unit (UTAR).
The Public Ministry argues that the accused violated articles 59, 60, 265, and 266 of the Domnicano Criminal Code, which typifies “Association of Malhechores”, as well as articles 58, 59, 60, 75 and 85 of Law 50 -88, on narcotic drugs, which typify “drug trafficking and sponsorship.”
In addition, Enriquillo Luis Brito and Enrique José Luis Brito are also accused of violating articles 66 and 67 of Law 631-16 for the control and regulation of weapons, ammunition and related materials, and article 3 of Law 155- 17 on money laundering, to the detriment of the Dominican State.
The persecuting body asks the Court to impose 18 months of preventive detention and declare the case of complex processing.
On the Panthera 7 case
In accordance with what is reported by the Public Ministryin the course of the investigation of the Panthera 7 case, evidence has been collected that shows that the 9,587 packages, with a total weight of 9,889 kilograms of cocaine, were brought to the Dominican Republic from Colombia by sea, specifically by Bayahibe, the Roman and Pedernales, in the months prior to December 2024. In addition, the criminal organization recruited several employees of the Caucedo multimodal port, who contributed to the entrance of the cargo to the terminal aboard the container number FFAU4542281.
Likewise, that the criminal organization operates the Grasswey Group SRL and GWG Transport, container transport, which they used for international drug trafficking. Although the investigation reveals a broader and more complex network of sponsors.
The investigation showed that, to guard the cargo, four men with assault weapons inside the empty container with the active complicity of employees of the aforementioned terminal that were associated with the criminal organization entered the port; As evidenced by the evidence collected in the investigation, some of them delivered to the authorities by the administration of Caucedo.
The National Drug Control Directorate had intelligence information that indicated that in the port it was intended to move an important cargo of cocaine, taking advantage of the great commercial flow of December, so, on the instructions of its president, the vice council José Manuel Cabrera Ulloa , greater personnel than usual and tactical units were deployed. Subsequently, intelligence information was reinforced by an alert that the DNCD received from the administration of Caucedo for unusual movements, so the operation of the occupation of the controlled substance was materialized.
The authorities revealed that at 05:40 a RNT S503, traveling along Brisas de Caucedo Street, in the north-south direction, and when you reach the P-0 access control of the Caucedo multimodal port, it evades the verification of the X-ray machine, called “Presting”, and the inspection and verification, which shows the participation of the inspector and the sealant of the port, who participated to allow the entry of the drug and the 4 armed men who guarded the cargo.
At 06:05 in the afternoon on 05-12-2024, the FFAU4542281 container is captured while being transferred aboard the MACK brand truck, model CXU613, blue color, plate L380563, rotation of the RNTT S503, passing the control P-1 access of the Caucedo Multimodal Port, where it is declared as an empty return, and identifies, but it carried the more than 9.8 tons of cocaine that we have referred to.
At 08:21 at night dated 05-12-2024, the FFAU4542281 container was found at the floor level in the container courtyard of the Caucedo multimodal port, specifically, in position C346041, in front of the HLBU9354083 refrigerated container Bananos, from Guatemala, who was in the process of contamination in the port with 3,598 cocaine packages, while in the FFAU4542281 container they remained to be passed to the FFAU4542281, the amount of 5,989 cocaine packages, so the totality of packages found In both containers, when they are added they give the amount of 9,587 packages that, when heavy, have the net amount of 9,889 kilograms.
The evidence shows that the operation that was carried out was to remove the cocaine packages from the FFAU4542281 container, which had entered Caucedo, to enter it to the HLBU9354083 contriver, destined for Belgium, but the operation is interrupted by the performance of the DNCD and the Public Ministry, and that is why both containers had packages at the time of occupation.
To make space to enter the fridge container, as the coming from Guatemala is known to Belgium, part of the burden of bananas that he was carrying was taken.
The four armed men, with long and hooded weapons, kidnapped a truck driver, who was leaving a container, tried to get out of the terminal aboard the truck driven by the kidnapped, but already the DNCD in coordination with the security of the port, He had arranged the closure of it, so the members of the organization who know in that world as “clavators”, seeing that they could not go out due to the deployment of the agencies, escaped by a perimeter fence, as It shows a video of the perimeter that is in the hands of the Public Ministry.
The MACK truck, model CXU613, blue color, L380563 plate, RNTT S503 label, was bought in Santiago de los Caballeros, on behalf of a testaferro and member of the organization, but the evidence shows that the payment and proceedings for The acquisition of it was made by one of the main operational axes of the criminal network. After the fact, the criminal organization hid the truck, but it was located and kidnapped by the Public Ministry for the deployment of intelligence actions and a 360 analysis of the cameras system.
The MACK truck, CXU613 model, blue color, L380563 plate, RNTT S503 label, used to enter the container loaded with the drug was occupied a GPS that the criminal organization had no knowledge that possessed it, since said device there were been left by the company that had sold it. The aforementioned vehicle had not been transferred at the time of drug entry into the port, with the objective of the criminal organization hide the royal owner.
The Mapification of the GPS, which when traced corroborates, along with other evidence, that the main place where the container was charged with the 9.8 tons of cocaine, which is located a few minutes from the port, is owned by one of the main charged, which is arrested, the president of the GWG Transport company, who had not transferred the property, but the Public Ministry has in its possession the act of sale and the evidence that proves that it is its property.
The researchers from the Dominican Republic, once the evidence that proves it was occupied, established the traceability of the cargo and then proceeded to share information from some of their findings in the countries to which the information can be of high interest.
All forensic experts in the case have been carried out strictly following the law and the procedures established in this regard, which have generally not varied since 2004 to date.
In the raids, digital evidence, vehicles, money, firearms, outboard motors, among others, documentary evidence that are currently being processed were occupied.
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