The National Police have announced that three members of the force have been arrested and arraigned on suspicion of involvement in an armed robbery from a Caribe Express security truck carrying RD$38 million on the Duarte highway last Monday, 13 January.
The accused, corporals Angel Gregorio Garcia Perez and Johan Manuel Terrero Ortega, and Private Luis Alfredo Pichardo Ortiz were in possession of RD$1,088,000, which, according to their statements to Criminal Investigations Department officers, was their share of the robbery.
Police spokesman Colonel Jacobo Mateo Moquete says that the robbery was planned and orchestrated by an organized crime gang, reportedly headed by a man called Esterlin Rikelvin Viloria Calas, alias “El Grande”, who has been behind other robberies of security trucks in the past, including an incident in Guerra on 21 July 2013 when a group of armed men in military uniform held up a Vimenca truck.
Mateo Moquete said that Viloria Calas was on the run as well as another ten suspects, all with criminal records. Five of them, named as Choco, Magallanes, Familia, Eliezer and Rodriguez are already on the run for armed robbery and murder. It has now been established that Viloria Cabas flew out of the country bound for Spain.
As well as the police corporals and the private, a woman, Perla Franchesca Sanchez Florian was also arrested, accused of buying the cell phones the group used for communication before, during and after the robbery.
A National District court handed down one-year remand sentences in jail for the policeman and the Head of the National Police has issued dishonorable discharges.
Mandan a cárcel 15 de Azua a policías acusados de participar en asalto millonario a camión
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2014/1/19/307449/Apresan-a-tres-cabos-policiales-vinculados-al-robo-de-38-millones-de-pesos