More than 30 vehicles stolen on the U.S. mainland and in Puerto Rico, and later shipped to the Dominican Republic, have been recovered in Santo Domingo in the last three months. The majority have been detected at the toll booths on Las Americas highway near Las Americas International Airport and at the ports of East Haina and Boca Chica. The stolen cars enter the D.R. with false documents, and are sometimes taken to Haiti where, in Port-Au-Prince, stolen vehicles are exchanged and the thieves return to the D.R. in different cars, according to El Nacional newspaper.
The Dominican Foreign Ministry and the Embassy of the United States recently came to an agreement by which vehicles stolen in the U.S. and brought to the D.R. would be returned to their owners with relative ease. The accord came after a well-organized group of car thieves was discovered in New York, New Jersey and Florida and found to be shipping stolen vehicles to the Dominican Republic for subsequent sale.