The National Police says that the baby girl abducted on 4 April in a park in Los Minas had been sold for RD$5,000. Spokesman for the Police Frank Duran Mejía said that eight persons have been arrested. The Police say that the abduction was carried out by a gang now suspected in the trafficking of infants. Among those arrested are 40-year old Evelin Moronta and 21-year old Jessica Castillo. When the baby was rescued, Castillo was holding the baby. The arrest took place at Km. 19 of Las Americas Expressway. The baby was taken to the General Hospital of the Police for medical care and delivery to the rightful mother.
The Police accuses Reina Polanco, a cousin of the mother, Joanna Ramirez Montero, of serving as accomplice in the abduction for which she was paid RD$5,000. Reina Polanco is pregnant.
Others identified as participants in the ring are José Alberto y Rafael Gerónimo García Valdez, Eduviges Beltrán Mañón, Grileisi Princesa and Railin Beltrán Moronta, who were arrested in Los Tres Brazos, and Manuel Emilio D’ Oleo Montero in La Ureña.
The mother of the seven-day old baby, 16-year old Joanna Ramírez Montero, denounced the kidnapping last week to the Police. She said she had agreed to meet with Moronta in the Los Mina Park in Las Palmas, Santo Domingo Este because the woman had promised to bring her gifts of diapers and milk.
While originally it had been reported that Ramirez was knocked out with a drug to steal the baby, the teenager, as reported in El Dia, clarified that she went with her cousin to the park and then one of the women told her to accompany her to pick up the diapers and milk, and leave the baby with her cousin and the second woman. When the mother returned, her cousin told her that the unknown lady had left with the baby after giving her RD$100 to buy a chicken lunch and then spraying an unknown powder to take the baby.
The father of the baby, Jerry Joel Tavares said he always suspected that Reina Polanco could have been involved because of the many telephone calls she was receiving and avoiding that her conversations be overheard.
Surveillance video of a business located adjacent to the Los Mina park captured the moment of the delivery of the child to the gang members and the payment was made. The case is now being used to resolve other similar cases. The authorities also tracked the calls made by cell phone by Moronta Inoa to contact the cousin of the young mother.
El Dia reports that the scheme may have worked best with poor Haitian mothers that give birth in public hospitals.
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
10 April 2018
