On Monday Diario Libre reported a case of people trying to travel on falsified documents. According to the report, one such individual, Bethania de Jesus, was a very special woman since she was not held for interrogation by the security people at Las Americas International Airport upon her arrival there on ?superiors? orders.? This is despite the fact that she and three others were stopped by security personnel as they tried to board a plane for New York with fraudulent documents.
The chief supervisor of Shift 11 at the airport, Lorenzo Galva, sent letter number 7411 to the head of immigration, Siquio NG de la Rosa, in which he limited his comments to the handing over of the four persons. According to the story written by Tomas Ventura, when the women and her three fellow passengers were stopped, a phone call prevented them from being taken to the Department of Falsifications at police headquarters for further interrogation. Immigration inspectors said de Jesus told them she was helping the other three get to New York in order ?to help this family.? Nevertheless, they also reported that she offered the inspectors RD$150,000 to look the other way. In today?s Diario Libre the story gets even better, as Ventura reports there are at least two military officials under investigation for accepting US$3,800 in bribes so that de Jesus and her conspirators were let go at the airport. A colonel and a major who work in the Military Immigration Coordinator?s Office at the airport were called in for further interrogation by investigators of the DNI (National Investigations Department).
Yesterday, the US Embassy revealed that US Immigration inspectors are supervising the verification of travel documents at the Las Americas Airport, and are working with DNI and intelligence officials to re-evaluate the situation at Dominican airports.
Meanwhile, 37 people were returned to the Dominican Republic from France where they had tried to travel using phony documentation. They had boarded the plane in Punta Cana.