The National Police announced the suspending of first lieutenant José Antonio Suero Carrasco. He is said to be the person in charge of internal affairs in Barahona at the time when a 400 kilo loot was seized from drug traffickers and then stolen by almost a dozen policemen, allegedly in complicity with their bosses.
Suero Carrasco’s suspension comes after his daughter and her husband, also police, have been tied to the missing loot of drugs. Suero Carrasco is the father of police agent Cherilyn Stefan Suero Medina. State prosecutors accuse Suero Medina and her husband of kidnapping corporal Esteban Armando Feliz Batista (Chatica) after the theft of 400 kilos of cocaine.
“Chatica” has said Cherilyn Stefan Suero Medina, daughter of the suspended officer, and her husband, Jonathan Andres Perez, asked for a RD$5 million ransom for his release.
Suero Carrasco was appointed by then Southern regional director, Major General Eduardo Then to investigate the missing drug case before it made headlines. In October 2021, Then was named director of the National Police.
The theft of the 400 kilos of cocaine took place on 28 August 2021 when a police commando composed of eleven people under the command of a captain identified as Rafael Medina Perez seized the drugs and distributed them among themselves. The reports are that 200 kilos of the drugs are missing and would have been sold to other drug traffickers.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office said the interrogation of captain Medina Perez by the International Affairs-Barahona was not submitted in the documentation on the case.
The kidnapping of corporal Féliz Batista took place on 3 November 2021, when his captors demanded part of the loot which has a market value of RD$260 million. Feliz Batista said he only received a sack with 10 kilos of cocaine, that he sold for RD$2 million.
The kidnapping was what brought the case to the notice of the general public.
The agent, who confessed his participation in the drug robbery and identified his colleagues, recounted his abduction as follows: “At about 8:10am, in Paraíso (municipality), a black Tahoe wanted to pass me, but I managed to escape because a truck passed me and I was able to leave. When I left, further ahead, there was a black Sonata. I was going to return by the school in Paraíso and they crossed my car in the middle and managed to knock me down.
“When they knocked me down, a woman and a man got out of the Tahoe. The man had a rifle in his hands and the woman had a Glock (pistol). Three men got out of the other car, one had a Taurus revolver and the other two Glock pistols each.”
Interior & Police Minister Jesus Vasquez said that the “purge” of the Police would begin in January of 2022.
El Dia reports on 18 November that what occurred with the 400 kilo shipment was that the police agents seized the cargo and then sold it to another drug trafficking operation. The arrested agents have not been able to account for 200 kilos of the seized drug load.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
El Dia
El Dia
18 November 2021