Dominican Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso has ordered a sweeping criminal investigation into illegal land occupations and potential real estate fraud across the nation’s protected areas. To spearhead the effort, Reynoso has established a high-level task force dedicated to dismantling criminal networks that have illicitly acquired property titles within national parks and ecological reserves.
The task force is coordinated by Deputy Attorney General Wilson Camacho, head of the Specialized Prosecution Office for the Prosecution of Corruption (Pepca). The elite team also includes high-ranking prosecutors from various legal disciplines: Mirna Ortiz of Pepca; Francisco Contreras, head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of the Environment; Ramona Nova from Anti-Money Laundering; Ana Burgos of Real Estate Investigation; and Gedeón Platón Bautista Liriano, State Attorney before the Real Estate Jurisdiction.
The investigation targets several critical ecological zones, including Jaragua National Park, Valle Nuevo, Sierra de Bahoruco, the Baní Dunes, the Bucanyé area, and Hoyo del Pino National Park. This initiative follows a recent controversial court ruling that reportedly requires the Ministry of Environment to remove large tracts of land from the National System of Protected Areas (SINAP) through cadastral procedures.
According to the Attorney General’s instructions, the task force will scrutinize all legal acts, administrative transitions, and private transactions that led to the issuance of property titles within these territories. The objective is to uncover evidence of corruption, forgery, or malfeasance that enabled the private appropriation of public natural heritage.
In addition to investigating specific cases, the task force is mandated to work alongside the Ministry of Environment, led by Minister Paíno Henríquez, to produce a comprehensive report on the legal status and environmental impact of crimes across all 134 protected areas in the country.
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El Caribe
16 February 2026