The case of the contraband whisky got even more news spread as the agents from the National Investigation Department (DNI), members of the District Attorney’s office in Santiago and officials of the Customs Department rounded up another 1,500 boxes of Scotch whisky, cognac and wines. The seizures were carried out in the market area of downtown Santiago known as Hospedaje Yaque and on Salvador Cucurullo Street. According to El Caribe, a total of four warehouses in Hospedaje Yaque were searched, including Provisiones del Cibao. In the storage facility on Salvador Cucurullo, 700 cases of Chivas Regal, Remy Martin, Courvoisier, Jack Daniels and other brands were discovered. Lieutenant Batista, from the DNI, told El Caribe reporters that they are closing in on the printers of the two million tax stamps that were found in a house in Reparto Oquet in Santiago. Officials even searched the Cibao Baseball Stadium, since one of the accused, Julio Cesar Pichardo, has a five-year contract to run the bars and restaurants in the stadium.
The Listin Diario, as well as the El Caribe, reports that judge Clara Luz Almonte Gomez, magistrate of the Fifth Circuit of the National District, ordered the release of Julio Cesar Pichardo, Jose Rafael Perez and the brothers Franklin and Francisco Antonio Abreu Garcia. The four had been jailed in relation to the case, but under the new Penal Code, the 48 hours without the justice department handing in an indictment. The judge postponed until today to hear a request for jail against the group that has been submitted by assistant district attorneys Luis Manuel Cedeno and Adolfo Feliz. As the judge rendered her decision, Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero, the DA for Santo Domingo, took the four prisoners and their lawyers to the office of Miguel Cocco, the head of the Customs Department. According to Ramon Benzan, the Listin Diario reporter covering the case, a conciliatory agreement was reached and the justice department will retire its request for preventive custody for the four.