Government investigative sections are giving priority to the people smuggling tragedy in which 24 Haitians died of asphyxia in a truck on Tuesday. What is known is that the Haitians, most from Cap Haitien, had paid to be transported from Dajabon to Esperanza and then to Santiago.
The police has already arrested 20 people in connection to the case and searched one of the suspects’ homes where 49 of the illegal migrants had stayed, prior to their taking the tragic truck journey. During a press conference, Migration Director Carlos Amarante Baret said that among those arrested in Santiago, Dajabon and Mao were the two men who had rented the container truck. El Caribe reports that the number of detainees in this case is 26.
The Police Chief reported that according to Fane Ube the group was composed of 61 men, 6 women and 2 minors.
Thirteen bodies were found behind a monument to the Heroes of La Barranquita, near the Guayacanes intersection. Another eleven bodies – 10 men and one woman – were discovered in La Mina in the municipality of Esperanza, where five survivors were also found. The survivors are being looked after in several medical centers across the region.
The authorities have only been able to identify two of the deceased, as the others had no documents on them. The bodies were taken to the morgue at Jose Maria Cabral y Baez Regional Hospital in Santiago.
The police report given by General Santana Paez during the press conference, explains that the bodies were left in the locations by Elvis Rafael Rodriguez Ortiz and his helper Esteban Martinez Rosario, who were driving a Daihatsu, closed container-type truck, with license plate No. L-166444. Both men are in custody. The vehicle is officially registered in the name of Anthony Leonel Acevedo Batista, according to the police. Also detained is German Antonio Tatis, who is accused by Haitian Fane Ube of keeping 69 illegal migrants, including himself and those deceased, in his house in Dajabon prior to the next tragic part of the journey as they crossed over the border.
Listin Diario reports that the victims had been in the container truck for four days on the Haitian side of the border, according to intelligence reports quoted by Armed Forces Minister Pared Perez. Some of the survivors have said they paid between RD$1,500 and RD$2,500 to be taken to Santiago. Pared Perez told the Listin Diario that the Haitians had spent four days enclosed in the truck.