The National Police and the Armed Forces began on Wednesday, 10 January 2018, a national crime prevention campaign with the arrest of hundreds of persons on charges of possession of firearms, illegal weapons such as knives, and drug charges. The police director, Major General Ney Bautista Almonte, told reporters from the El Nacional newspaper that the arrests had been made in the National District, the province of Santo Domingo, San Cristobal, Santiago, La Romana, San Pedro de Macoris, San Francisco de Macoris, San Juan, Azua, San Jose de Ocoa, Puerto Plata, La Vega, and Valverde.
Police spokesman Colonel Frank Duran Mejia, said that during the operations some 8,762 persons were searched and of these 1013 persons were detained because of suspicious activity or profile, and another 10 persons were arrested for having a prior criminal record, 67 persons were arrested because they were “known criminals”; seven persons were detained after being allegedly caught in the act of a crime and 18 persons were found to be fugitives from justice.
According to the spokesman for the police, nine firearms were seized, four of them because they did not have documentation and five of them because they were homemade firearms. In addition, hundreds of illegal knives were also seized. More than 100 packages of different drugs were seized together with equipment needed to prepare drugs for sale.
More than 18 assistant prosecutors, 1,500 agents and nearly 500 military personnel using over 200 cars and trucks and 260 motorcycles took part in the operation.
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El Nacional
11 January 2018
