Mount Christi. The hearing of the request for a coercive measure made by the Public ministry against 15 defendants. He accuses them of belonging to an organized criminal network that traffics Haitian immigrants.
The judge of the Office of Permanent Attention of the judicial district of Montecristi, Javiera Antonia Gómez, established the date for the hearing of a precautionary measure against the defendants in the network. The structure was dismantled early Sunday morning in Operation Border.
In the request for coercion that the interim prosecutor of Montecristi, Dinorah Liberato Rojas, deposited on Monday, the Public Ministry requests 18 months of preventive detention. Also the statement of complexity of the process.
The petition contemplates 15 accused for the violation of the criminal offense of migrant smuggling. The crime is foreseen and sanctioned in articles 2 and 7 (literal b, c, d and e) of Law 137-03, on Illicit Trafficking of Migrants and Human Trafficking. Also in articles 265 and 266 of the Penal Code, which classify Human Trafficking and Smuggling as a crime.
caught
In the operation coordinated by the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against the Smuggling of Migrants and Human Trafficking (PETT), Yoanna Bejarán, there are several arrested. They are Eddy Rafael Cordero Villanueva and Osiris Rafael Estévez Fortuna. They have been identified as leaders of this migrant smuggling network from Haiti.
Likewise, in coordination with the head prosecutor of this jurisdiction, Grimaldi Oviedo Meran, and the also prosecutor Yohanny Herrera and the lawyer Giselle González. They received support from the Commander General of the Dominican Republic Army, Major General Carlos Antonio Fernández Onofre. Elbio José Castillo Martínez, Hilario Antonio Gómez Paul and Santo Valerio Contreras were arrested. Also to Anelby Susaña Guzmán, Jesús María Cerda Acosta and Anelsy Escarlex Cordero Núñez. Also to María Rafaela Batista de Cordero.
Also charged are members of the Dominican Army, Second Lieutenant José Dolores Hernández Merejildo and Julio César Pujols Montero. In addition to Sergeants Major Rafael Contreras and Rafael Zabala Peña and Corporal Sandro Liranzo Javier.
Investigation
According to investigation carried out by the Public Ministry, the leaders and members of the network were dedicated to financing, facilitating and transporting migrants through motorcycles and buses. This in complicity with the military in surveillance and control functions in that border area of the country.
In the 16 raids they found 24 immigrants, including men, pregnant women, children and adolescents. These remained in the clandestine collection centers used by the criminal structure. Then they transported them through the different established routes to different provinces of the country.
Among the evidence that the prosecutors collected from the members of the alleged criminal structure, the following stand out: documents, vehicles, motorcycles, firearms and ammunition. Also chargers for pistols, cash of different denominations (pesos, dollars and gourdes) and cell phones. In addition, computers among other useful and relevant evidence elements linked to the smuggling of persons.
The dismantling of the criminal organization was possible due to the hard work of intelligence and investigation carried out in coordination with the different agencies under the direction of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against the Illicit Smuggling of Migrants and Human Trafficking (PETT) and the Montecristi Prosecutor’s Office, jointly with the Special Division of Transnational Crimes (DEIDET), the support in the execution of the operation of the Department of Investigation of Illicit Smuggling of Migrants of the National Police and the NGO Anti-Trafficking Beauro Antitrafficking Bureau (ATB).
