Cracking down on corruption in jails

The Police, Armed Forces, Drug Control Agency and the Public Prosecutor’s Office joined for the Operation Halcon IV on Tuesday, 13 June 2023. More than 20 persons were arrested. The Attorney General Office described the effort as “so far the largest operation carried out against multiple criminal networks.”

A press release from the Attorney General Office indicates that the investigations have shown that members of various government investigative agencies are involved with these criminal networks. The PGR says that the authorities will proceed to subject them to disciplinary and even criminal proceedings, in order to remove them from the institution, in the cases that merit it.

Authorities have seized weapons and money, as well as cocaine, marijuana, among other evidence of crimes in an operation that is still in process.

In the operation on Tuesday, 13 June 2023, 71 prosecutors and 1,350 special forces of the
National Police, military, agents and members of elite units of the armed forces mobilized in the Central Cibao and other parts of the country.

The operation was primarily focused in Santiago. It coincides with a recent complaint by Attorney General Miriam German Brito that she had received a life threat against her son. Precisely, the investigation focuses on Joel Ambioris Pimentel Garcia (alias La J), mentioned as the person who would have made the threat.

Pimentel García is known as “J” and “El Grande” and he is attributed to be the owner of most of the drug points in the city of Santiago and to be the person who threatened Attorney General Germán Brito with killing her son because she had taken a series of measures that affected his illegal business in the prisons.

El Dia reports that in the different jails he had control of the businesses, drug sales and telephone operations used for swindling, in addition to organizing contracted killings.

El Dia reports that Pimentel García has denied he was the person who made the call threatening the Attorney General. In a three-page letter of which El Dia published excerpts, Pimentel Garcia praised German Brito for purging the Dominican penitentiary system. He denied that he controls the country’s prisons. He said that even a child knows that the jails, especially those that still operate under the old model, are controlled by corrupt authorities in complicity with detainees. “J” says he is being used as scapegoat to hide the real persons responsible for the corruption in the jails.

The PGR office says that others investigated are:
José Halminton Ureña (a) Nino Come Mezcla), Isidro Marcelino Tavares Acevedo (Chicho) and Rafael Tomás Conill Salcedo (a) Niño Hot Dog (who also uses the name Máximo Alberto Sánchez), Kelvin Manuel Concepción López (a) El Menor.

Also, Ángel Pascual García Vásquez (a) Alex Capucha), Alejandro Vidal (a) Alex, Carlos Erik Abreu Ureña, Briayan Rafael Abreu Ureña, Ilich Raymundo Báez Ureña, Jonás Antonio Turbi Molina (a)Jonás, Francisco Rosario Matías, Elimelec Quiñones Calderon, José Miguel Fabián García Sánchez and Luis José Bonilla Santana (a)Viento, Jencil Freund Arias (a)Toro, Deibys Santiago Santiago (a)Fory Two, Kelvin Pablo García Rodríguez (a)Kelvin Fantasma, Allison Moreno Rodríguez (a)Barajita, Luis Amaurys Pimentel García (a)Manito, among others.

The raids began at 3:30am in Santiago, San Hermanas Mirabal, Duarte and La Vega in the Cibao region and San Cristóbal in the south.

Searches were carried out in the Najayo Men’s jail in San Cristóbal, in Rafey Hombres jail in Santiago, Vista del Valle, La Isleta Moca, El Pinito, La Vega Public Prison, where members of the different criminal structures are being held.

The operations were directed from the Palace of Justice in Santiago by Yeni Berenice Reynoso, assistant attorney general and head of the Public Ministry of the Attorney General Office; vice admiral José M. Cabrera Ulloa, president of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD), and major general Eduardo Alberto Then, director general of the National Police.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office called on the dozens of families with relatives killed by the organizations involved in the operation to approach the Attorney General’s Office without any fear of speaking out, as the prosecuting body has established a special protection program for victims and witnesses.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office and investigative agencies have taken evidence that the organizations commit crimes and even threats to high state officials, usurping the identity of leaders of adverse organizations, with the intention of creating false leads.

The PGR release states that the evidence linking government entity members to drug trafficking, cybercrime, illicit business in prisons, bribery of authorities, all the structures, without exception, is why the multi-agency investigation is now being carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the National Police and the DNCD.

The Attorney General, Miriam German Brito; the director of the National Police, Major General Eduardo Alberto Then, and the president of the DNCD, Vice Admiral Jose M. Cabrera Ulloa, established the need for multi-agency effort with investigations focused on these criminal structures.

The PGR shared details of the ringleaders of the different networks are:

Joel Ambioris Pimentel García (la J), who was deported from the United States after serving a sentence for drug trafficking. As a Dominican he traveled to Colombia and with Colombian identity to Spain, where he took up residence as a Dominican. Investigations link him to dozens of violent deaths in several northern provinces of the Dominican Republic. He reportedly directs a major criminal gang.

José Halminton Ureña (Nino Come Mezcla) reportedly controls a competing criminal gang. The PGR says that Ureña left the country despite having a conditional sentence for drug trafficking imposed in the jurisdiction of Hermanas Mirabal province. His criminal organization is contrary to that of Joel Ambioris Pimentel García (la J). It has attributed dozens of violent deaths that include members of his own network.

Rafael Tomás Conill Salcedo (a) Niño Hot Dog, who also uses the name Máximo Alberto Sánchez, is currently in Panama and maintains an active criminal participation in different prisons in the country. He is an ally of the accused Joel Ambioris Pimentel García (la J).

The convicted Isidro Marcelino Tavares Acevedo (Chicho), imprisoned in the Centro de Corrección y Rehabilitación Rafey Hombres where he is serving a 20-year sentence for homicide, is involved in micro-trafficking.

The elite forces have penetrated into places considered difficult and have taken control of areas that for years were considered territories dominated by some criminal organizations, such as El Hoyo de Bartola, center of operation of the extraditable Joel Ambioris Pimentel García (la J).

The investigation has found evidence that several members of the various criminal organizations leave for Spain after committing blood crimes or drug trafficking activities in the Dominican Republic.

In most cases, they leave the country through Colombia. The Dominican authorities have established close collaboration with several countries that have been provided with information on the members of the criminal organizations that have entered their territories.

Last year, former director of jail reform in the Dominican Republic, Roberto Santana had denounced major corruption in the La Victoria Jail in complicity with law enforcement authorities.