More developments should be forthcoming on the case of police contingent catching traffickers and then keeping the drugs. The most recent case happened in Barahona at a time when the present chief of the Police was the commander in chief.
Diario Libre is pointing out that today head of the Police Eduardo Then was the director of the Police in the southwest region (Barahona) when a group of 10 police agents seized a drug shipment of 400 kilos of cocaine with a street value of more than RD$260 million and distributed it among themselves on 28 August 2021. The drug traffickers went free at the time, and the case was not reported by the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) nor by the National Police. As reported, the whereabouts of 200 kilos of the cocaine shipment have yet to be established.
The crime went public only after one of the agents involved in the drug-keeping crime, corporal Esteban Armando Feliz Batista was kidnapped and a millionaire ransom was asked for him by other police agents.
Now, the Police says that 15 agents are under arrest and the matter is under investigation.
On Monday, 8 November 2021, the arraignment against the officers would have been held, but the court hearing was suspended after one of the arrested agents demanded that a Colonel Morillo show up.
Eduardo Then was named in June 2021 to be the commander of the Southwest (Barahona) region. On 18 October 2021 he was sworn in as director of the National Police.
El Dia newspaper, that is known for its thorough coverage of crime in the Dominican Republic, editorializes on 15 November on the reoccurence of the theft of drug shipments in the Police and calls for the Attorney General Office to take charge of the investigations into this most recent case.
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
El Dia
El Dia
El Dia
Z101 Digital
El Dia
15 November 2021