Military personnel accused of weapons trafficking have defended their innocence by saying the firearms were imported legally and the corresponding Customs taxes had been paid.
State prosecutors are accusing seven military officers employed at the Ministry of Defense Warfare Department of smuggling 220 guns and passing them off as official imports when they were intended for sale on the local market. Prosecutors are accusing the department director, Air Force General Bienvenido Cordero Batista of heading the operation, along with Major Esteban Marrero Ruiz, Captain Francisco Mercedes Medrano, First Lieutenant Edwin Rafael Almonte Camacho, Felix Francisco Perez Artilez and Jose Miguel Torres Rodriguez. The owner of the Armeria Heptagono shop in Santiago where the weapons were sold, Pedro Manuel Guzman Escarraman, has also been arrested. The military officers were arrested after the United States government voiced suspicions about gun purchases being made in the United States and informed the higher echelons at the Dominican Republic Ministry of Defense, as reported in El Dia. ??
7Dias has said that a joint investigation was launched with the Ministry of Interior and Police and the Santo Domingo prosecutors, which ascertained that many new permits for firearms of expensive brands such as Glock and Sig Sauer at market prices of RD$300,000 in the local market had been issued since 2012, despite a ban on the import of all firearms in Decree 309-06.
