The Attorney General Office says three active generals were arrested after strong evidence is available on their participation in a network of administrative corruption, now named Operation Coral 5G. The generals are Dominican Air Force (FAD) general Juan Carlos Torres Robiou, former head of the Specialized Tourism Security Corps (Cestur). Also General Julio Camilo de los Santos Viola, also of the FAD, and General Boanerges Reyes Batista, of the Dominican Republic Army.
Others arrested in the Operation Coral 5G investigation are Captain Franklin Antonio Mata Flores, José Manuel Rosario Pirón, Colonels Carlos Augusto Lantigua Cruz and Miguel Ventura Pichardo; Erasmo Roger Pérez Núñez, Corporal Jehohanan L. Rodríguez Jiménez and César Félix Ramos Ovalle.
The Attorney General Office, now under Miriam German Brito, reports that a team of prosecutors carried out 49 raids in the National District and the provinces of Santo Domingo, Santiago and La Vega to find the evidence.
The operations are headed by the deputy prosecutors Yeni Berenice Reynoso and Wilson Camacho, heads of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Specialized Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca).
The actions are a follow up to the Operation Coral in which the Public Prosecutor’s Office earlier had presented evidence that led to the preventive custody of Adán Cáceres Silvestre, former director of the Presidential Security Corps (Cusep), and Rossy Guzmán Sánchez (la Pastora), as well as police corporal Tanner Antonio Flete Guzmán, police colonel Rafael Núñez de Aza and Navy sergeant Alejandro José Montero Cruz on 10 May 2021.
These had arrested when Operation Coral went public on Saturday, April 24, 2021. The arrested are in prison in Najayo Men and Women jails, in San Cristobal.
The Attorney General Office press release giving the update on Operation Coral and announcing Operation Coral 5G recalls that colonel Raul Alejandro Giron Jimenez, who has been cooperating with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the court was ordered to keep house arrest for security reasons.
The Attorney General Office reports that on 8 August 2021, the First Court of Instruction of the National District confirmed the coercive measures against all the accused. On Friday 12 November 2021, this court confirmed the measures, except for Sergeant Montero Cruz who has an appeal pending and whose lawyers have not presented themselves.
The group is accused of committing criminal association, fraud against the Dominican state, coalition of officials, forgery of public documents, laundering of assets coming from acts of corruption and illegal possession and carrying of firearms.
The criminal network dismantled with Operation Coral that developed its criminal activities in the Cusep and Cestur, mainly through payroll fraud. During the investigations, the Public Prosecutor’s Office discovered that Colonel Rafael Núñez de Aza also served as financial director of the National Council for Children and Adolescents (Conani), despite the fact that he did not appear in the public records.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has established in the course of the judicial process that they carried out fraudulent operations to acquire a large amount of movable and immovable assets, luxury vehicles and properties in different parts of the Dominican Republic.
The arrests of the three generals comes at a time when the Senate has included in the revision of the Penal Code a clause that would create special military courts for crimes of the military. The present legislation call for the military to be judged by the ordinary justice.
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Attorney General Office
18 November 2021