According to police spokesman, Colonel Frank Duran, a powerful network of travel document forgers and human traffickers has been dismantled by the National Police with the arrest of 17 of its members in simultaneous operations. Durán said that the dismantling of the network followed 22 months of hard intelligence work by the Specialized Investigation Division against Migration Crimes (Deidem) from the Central Investigation Agency (Dicrim).
Among those arrested are three women and 14 men and an Italian citizen, who charged each client between US$10,000 and US$20,000 for a passport and other fake documents to travel overseas.
Those arrested are Fabia Teresa Soler Silvestre, Inés Tomasina Ortiz (alias) Nena, Jenny Cecilia Reyes Núñez, Juan Pablo Soto Lara, Delio Amago Izalguez Aquino, Andrés Beltrand (alias) Chemo, Hilarión Rafael Moisés (alias) Papito, Rubén Darío Leger Ferreras (alias) Leger, Nelson Féliz Reyes (alias) Onésimo, and Nelson Encarnación Polanco.
Also arrested were Savino Zacaro (alias) El Italiano, Alberto Antonio Amaro Santiago, Lucas Alberto Rafael Comprés Díaz, Alexis Reyes Pérez (alias) Moreno, Dennison Amauris Mejía Bautista (alias) Spencer, Carlos Manuel Báez Báez (alias) Calitín, and José Antonio Rodríguez Díaz.
According to the police the gang heads were Fabia Soler and Juan Pablo Soto, who employed Lucas Comprés, Dennison Amauris Mejía, Alexis Reyes Pérez, Alberto Antonio Amaro and Inés Tomasina Ortiz, to look for people and then they bought all of the stolen passports.
The investigation revealed that passports were forged, altered and sold and came from Canada, Spain, France, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic so that their clients could travel illegally to the United States, Europe, and other countries in Central America and the Caribbean.
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Listin Diario
6 November 2018
