The Justice Department has requested that judges order the preventive custody of Edgar Batista Matos, who was recently deported from the United States. It seems that Batista Matos was the “captain” of the small craft that floundered off the coast of Guayacanes Beach as 60 persons attempted to travel to Puerto Rico.
Five persons drowned in the incident, and several have not accounted for, possibly because their reluctance to come forward or in the cases of those who perished in the capsizing.
Each of the people in the little boat reportedly had paid Batista Matos the sum of US$6,000 for the trip.
Prosecutor Yoanna Bejaran Alvarez, who heads the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Illegal Trafficking of Migrants and Human Trafficking (PETT), together with the prosecutor for this case, Aleika Almonte Santana, and other officials, requested this long period of preventive custody as well as that the case be declared ‘complex’, which gives the prosecutors more time to prepare the case.
After the boat floundered, the indicted captain Batista Matos, escaped and managed to get to the United States. He was caught by the US authorities and returned to the Dominican Republic on 5 March 2025.
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Listin Diario
17 March 2025