The Public Prosecutor’s Office has requested the imposition of preventive imprisonment against retired vice admiral Félix Alburquerque Comprés. Alburquerque was director of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) from 2019 to 2020, during the Danilo Medina administration. Alburquerque Comprés is accused of killing communicator Manuel Taveras Duncan. Taveras Duncan is known in the Dominican professional sports world.
State prosecutors accuse Alburquerque Comprés of erasing relevant evidence by destroying and hiding the illegal weapon he used to commit the crime. Alburquerque Comprés turned himself into the authorities on Friday, late in the evening. He did not turn in the weapon used in the crime. He is held at the Palacio de Justicia de Ciudad Nueva jail. The custody hearing is set for Monday, 22 August 2022.
The custody request addressed to the court by prosecutor Vladimir Viloria, of the Department of Investigation of Crimes and Crimes against Persons of the National District Prosecutor’s Office, establishes that on 19 August 2022, at approximately 2:30am, a fight broke out between the accused Alburquerque Comprés, former president of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD), and the victim Manuel Taveras Duncan. Taveras Duncan died of two bullet injuries.
The crime occurred while the victim was at the popular Rico Hot Dog stand on the corner of Núñez Cáceres and Rómulo Betancourt avenues. The murder was captured in a surveillance video and widely disseminated on social media.
The prosecutors say the investigation has revealed that Taveras Duncan was already at the food stand when Alburquerque Compres arrived on a Mercedes Benz vehicle. The two got into a verbal argument that led to a physical fight. The security guard and a person accompanying the victim intervened.
Yet, Alburquerque Comprés headed to his vehicle, apparently to fetch his firearm. The security and employees of the establishment suggested to Taveras Duncan to leave the place, but he failed to do so in time. Alburquerque was promptly back with a gun and began to fire multiple shots against the victim and his friend, failing to hit them at that moment because they ran away.
Taveras Duncan managed to hide but was found by his victimizer, who immediately proceeded to shoot him in the thorax. After Taveras Duncan fell to the pavement, the surveillance video shows Alburquerque Comprés ruthlessly shooting his victim again and leaving the scene of the crime, the lifeless body of the communicator on the ground.
The autopsy established that 45-year old Taveras Duncan died as a result of a gunshot wound in the right hemithorax and exit in the dorsal region, according to the coroner’s report No. 65197, carried out by the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif).
The state prosecutors report indicates that after committing the crime, the accused disposed of the murder weapon used to kill Taveras Duncan. The prosecutors say the weapon was illegal, since this was not assigned to Alburquerque Compres by his military institution.
Alburquerque Comprés was ordered under arrest by judicial order No. 0032-agosto-2022, issued by the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of the National District.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office grades the crime as covered by 295 and 304 of the Dominican Penal Code, and articles 66 and 67 of Law 631-16, for the Control and Regulation of Weapons, Ammunition and Related Materials, on voluntary homicide caused with an illegal firearm.
The Prosecutor’s Office recommends against domiciliary arrest or release on bail given it understands that Alburquerque Comprés does not offer guarantees he will submit to justice. The prosecutors suspect that the former Navy officer could torpedo the investigation by intimidating witnesses given his military career ties and his violent behavior, in addition to the fact that he destroyed or has hidden the illegal weapon he used to commit the criminal act.
Previously, Alburquerque Compres had been mentioned as being part of the alleged coalition of officials headed by Major General Adán Cáceres Silvestre, chief bodyguard of former President Danilo Medina, for which he is accused in the Coral case.
Somos Pueblo recalls that Alburquerque Comprés when director of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) had defended prosecutor Carmen Lisett Núñez and the agents accused of implanting drugs in a barber shop in Villa Vásquez, Montecristi.
At the time, Alburquerque Comprés said that the surveillance video that presented the evidence of the planting of drugs in the barbershop was edited. Alburquerque Compres threatened to arrest those who disseminated the video. At the time, he warned that “the DNCD is going to reserve the right to take legal action against the people who circulate the video to create a bad perception among the citizens. Citizens should know that we will not allow anything negative that will create disbelief. Social networks are morbid because anyone can edit a video. Many communicators who are not objective and truthful do not wait for the result of the investigations.”
Attorney General Miriam German ordered last May 2022 that the Inspector General’s Office of the Public Ministry investigate the prosecutor Antonio de Jesus Baez Tapia, who had withdrawn the charges against the former-prosecutor Carmen Lisett Núñez and four DNCD agents.
According to his Instagram account, the deceased was a promoter and CEO of the De Daiskep Consulting Agency. He known as an entertainer of sports and entertainment events in the country. In recent years he served as an entertainer for the Leones del Escogido baseball team.
Diario Libre in its coverage on the murder case asks the question on why was a retired high ranking official carrying an illegal weapon. Diario Libre includes the version of Alburquerque who says that he responded to a personal aggression and “I lost it!”
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Hoy
Noticias SIN
Somos Pueblo
Somos Pueblo
El Caribe
Diario Libre
22 August 2022