The Dominican Republic’s Public Ministry (Ministerio Público) has established a new specialized agency, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office Against the Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs (Procuraduría Antidrogas), in a strategic move to escalate and deepen the country’s fight against drug trafficking.
The creation of the unit, requested by Prosecutor General Yeni Berenice Reynoso and approved by the Public Ministry’s Superior Council, underscores a key institutional objective: dismantling criminal structures involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. The agency aims to seize the entirety of illicit assets to prevent their reuse in organized crime, which fuels public insecurity.
This new office strengthens an anti-narcotics strategy that has already yielded historic results. In recent years, the Dominican Republic has set records for seizures in microtrafficking operations, transnational drug busts, and the confiscation of narcotics-related assets.
Furthermore, the country has reinforced its commitment to international legal cooperation, facilitating extraditions within its legal framework and working closely with key allies, including the United States, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain.
The Superior Council justified the move under Article 53 of the Organic Law of the Public Ministry (Law 133-11), which empowers it to create specialized prosecutor’s offices based on the complexity of cases, public interest, or institutional priorities.
The Council, chaired by Prosecutor Reynoso, has named Sourelly Naihary Jáquez Vialet as the unit’s interim head. Jáquez Vialet, a seasoned member of the Public Ministry, brings extensive experience in prosecuting complex crimes. Her background includes roles in the Public Ministry, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office Against Arms Trafficking, and twelve years as a prosecutor in the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office Against Money Laundering, where she participated in major anti-narcotics investigations spanning over a decade.
Jáquez Vialet also holds specialized national and international training in critical areas such as Asset Forfeiture, Financial Investigation Techniques (ILEA), and a diploma in Organized Crime and Crypto Asset Investigations (FBI).
The launch of the new office reaffirms the Public Ministry’s absolute commitment to combating drug trafficking by targeting its financial engine. “The creation of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office against Drug Trafficking is an indispensable strategic response to the transformation of crime, which poses emerging challenges for all states,” stated Attorney General Reynoso.
Reynoso argued that the “traditional model of prosecution” is obsolete against today’s threats, citing the rise of synthetic drugs with evolving proliferation mechanisms and crypto-laundering, which anonymizes illicit gains and utilizes technological platforms for global distribution.
“This unprecedented interconnection of criminal networks on a planetary scale demands a highly specialized unit,” Reynoso emphasized. “It needs the technical capacity and exclusive focus to investigate these complex modalities, anticipate trends, track digital assets, and coordinate international cooperation in real-time. For these reasons, this new specialized office will be a model for strategic criminal prosecution.”
The announcement comes when the local anti-drug agency has stepped up its collaborations with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
At the same time, an editorial in Diario Libre criticizes the lack of preventive action by the political parties that have preferred to take a laissez-faire stand. When a person is formally accused, the party will state each person is individually responsible for their actions.
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Listin Diario
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
17 November 2025