The Specialized Prosecutor’s Office Against the Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons (PETT), together with the Montecristi Prosecutor’s Office, reported on the dismantling of an organized criminal network dedicated to the smuggling of Haitian immigrants involving military and civilians in Montecristi.
In Operation Frontera, Eddy Rafael Cordero Villanueva and Osiris Rafael Estevez Fortuna were arrested and identified as ringleaders of the network. Others arrested are Elbio José Castillo Martínez, Hilario Antonio Gómez Paul, Santo Valerio Contreras, Anelby Susaña Guzmán, Jesús María Cerda Acosta, Anelsy Escarlex Cordero Núñez and María Rafaela Batista de Cordero.
Also arrested in the operation were second lieutenants José Dolores Hernández Merejildo and Julio César Pujols Montero; sergeants Rafael Contreras and Rafael Zabala Peña and corporal Sandro Liranzo Javier.
“It was possible to dismantle this criminal organization that operated on the northern border, especially in the province of Montecristi, from where they managed to move hundreds of Haitian immigrants and introduce them into Dominican territory because its leader resides in the area and had the complicity of the arrested members of the Army who in the performance of their duties were authorized to guard and protect the border of our country, who allowed the illegal trafficking of hundreds of Haitian nationals into the territory of the Dominican Republic,” stated the head of PETT, Yoanna Bejarán, as reported in Listin Diario.
As part of the Operación Frontera, 16 raids were carried out.
Legislators and municipal officers have constantly pointed to the lenience and complicity of the military in the entry of thousands of undocumented Haitians in search of jobs and medical services in the Dominican Republic given the present anarchy in Haiti.
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Listin Diario
20 February 2023