Judge Wendy Martinez Mejia of the Penal Court of the Province of Santo Domingo has ordered one year’s preventive custody for the first group of people under investigation for the theft of 950 kilos of drugs. This includes the arrest of director Carlos Valerio Fernandez, head of operations Felix Humberto Paulino Lopez, two prosecutors (Maximo Antonio Diaz Ogando and Ramon Augusto Veras Castro), officers and subordinates of the National Police drugs micro-trafficking division (Luciano Gomez Cabrera, Barbaro Torres Beltran, Agapito Munoz Evangelista, Raidirys Garcia Miranda and Pedro Almanzar Gonzalez). The men were sent to La Victoria jail, the woman to Najayo.
Hearings to consider preventive custody for police captain Carlos Amezquita Reynoso and Major Ruddy Jose Japa Alvarez were set for this afternoon, Monday 19 January 2015.
They are accused of charges that include keeping drugs that were confiscated from drug traffickers for distribution to other drug vendors, forgery of documents, asset laundering, and illicit acquisition of wealth. Attorney General’s office investigators say they have proof that bribes were being paid out throughout the law enforcement system.
Lawyers for the director and chief of operations of Dican say they will appeal the preventive custody.