After an intensive multi-agency investigation, members of the Customs Agency (DGA) successfully located the sum of US$1,456,000 stashed in four 55-gallon drums as part of cargo that arrived from the United States, delivered by a freight consolidation company at the Port of Haina Oriental. The money was prepared in 163 rolls of various denominations and wrapped in plastic before being placed inside driveshafts as part of a shipment of auto parts.
Members of the Military Intelligence Agency (J-2), the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD), the National Investigations Agency (DNI) and other agencies worked together in this case.
According to the documentation accompanying the shipment, the drums were sent by Francisco Vargas to Marcos Peña, who lives in Santiago, and the contents were listed as “tanks with steel pieces”, referring to the spare parts for automobiles and carried into containers brought by the Salcedo Cargo Express. The shipment was supposed to go to a freight forwarding company in Santiago.
According to the Diario Libre, criminal elements often use the shipments that are intended to provide assistance from Dominicans living in the United States to their families in the country, in order to get around taxes or introduce illegal items such as firearms, ammunition and money, many times associated with money laundering. For this reason the DGA is intensifying inspections of shipments brought in by different shipping companies in order to bring about compliance with the laws regarding this commercial activity.
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Diario Libre
26 April 2018
