The Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) has requested that the ruling party members in the Chamber of Deputies act to replace the party deputy for Santiago, Miguel Gutierrez. Ignacio Paliza, president of the PRM, made the request to Alfredo Pacheco, president of the Chamber of Deputies. Gutierrez was arrested when he traveled to Miami on 18 May 2022. He is accused in the US of trafficking in cocaine.
According to the indictment handed down by a Miami federal grand jury on 11 March 2021, from approximately 2014 to 2017 Gutiérrez Díaz was part of a transnational drug trafficking network in the Dominican Republic, Colombia and the United States and distributed cocaine.
According to the indictment, the drugs arrived in the US hidden in boxes of fresh food aboard merchant ships or on yachts owned by the defendant.
Meanwhile, Diario Libre reports that Miguel Gutierrez is demanding back pay from the Chamber of Deputies after his arrest in May 2021. He says he is owed RD$2.8 million in back pay since June 2021.
Diario Libre reports that in addition to Miguel Gutiérrez, four other deputies of the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party and one of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) are under investigation. These are Nelson Rafael Marmolejos Gil (PRM), Faustina Guerrero Cabrera (PRM) and Hector Darío Féliz Féliz (PRD), accused of being part of the alleged drug trafficking and asset laundering network dismantled as Operation Falcon.
Also under investigation is deputy Amalia Pilarte López (PRM) for asset laundering. Another deputy under investigation is Sergio Moya (PRM), for his alleged participation in extortion network to illegal betting shops as part of the Squid Operation.
The Supreme Court of Justice has appointed judge Napoleón Estévez Lavandier to prepare the hearing against those legislators. Legislators cannot be arrested and need to be tried by judges of the Supreme Court of Justice.
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US Department of Justice
20 April 2023