A new operation joins the list of investigations of the Attorney General’s Office. Snail, Antipulpo, Medusa, Operation 13 is joined by Operation Falcon, described by the director of Persecution, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, as a rather complex investigation that will lead to one of the most important cases against money laundering.
This time it is not about administrative corruption as Dominican society has become accustomed to seeing in the courts in recent months, but it includes current officials and public servants among those allegedly involved, as is the case of Juan Maldonado Castro, Suspended holder of the General Direction Comunidad Digna.
Almost a year after his appointment, the name of Maldonado Castro was included last Wednesday along with seven others among those involved in Operation Falcon.
The suspended official has served since September 2020 as director of Dignified Community, an entity dedicated to “improving the quality of life” in general terms of the country’s most vulnerable communities.
This lawyer was a deputy of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) for the province of Seibo and during his duties he served as chairman of the standing committee on Municipal Affairs and Sports and the standing committee on Tourism.
He also participated as an active member of the permanent commission of Public Works and Road Communication, permanent commission of contract and permanent commission of public debt.
Next to Maldonado Castro, it was captured Juan José de la Cruz Morales, Against whom they had previously filed criminal charges. In November 2016, De la Cruz Morales was arrested along with six Dominicans in Puerto Rico in a case also linked to drug trafficking.
The capture of Michero, L’Home or El Do (some of his nicknames) was to be linked to the seizure of 1,786 kilos of cocaine, the largest shipment of this drug occupied in the history of Puerto Rico to date.
One of the detainees next to De la Cruz at that time also had a criminal record, linked to various acts with illicit substances in Miches, hometown of Juan Maldonado Castro, whom they know as Marcial or El Líder.
Added to capture list, José Alejandro de la Cruz Morales, Who to deduce by the last names, possibly is brother of the previous one.
Journalistic records keep on José Alejandro that in 2012 he was captured on the way to Santiago, a city that Berenice Reynoso described yesterday as the center of operation of the principal involved in Falcón, where he would deliver a “beach fridge” with almost US $ 500,000 in cash, as part of a money laundering network from drug trafficking.
Also, the following year this native of Miches returned to the media cited among those responsible for the shooting death of two men, on the night of June 18, 2013 on the road that connects the Duarte highway with San Cerro, in La Vega. “It was revenge for a drug deal,” the media say at the time.
“Omar,” alias José Alejandro, was also caught trying to enter Puerto Rico illegally, where he already had a criminal record and had been repatriated years ago for criminal offenses.
However, Judge Duvergé Mejía favored De la Cruz Morales with an act of disqualification because the National Directorate of Drug Control (DNCD) did not have an arrest warrant to capture him, despite having found him in fragrant.
Maria Olimpia Tavares Rodríguez, Known as Oli and the Princess, is also among those arrested by the Public Ministry after the home violations executed last Wednesday in more than nine provinces of the national territory.
In December 2012 she was captured by the National Research Department (DNI). Subsequently, the Specialized Anti-Money Laundering Asset Attorney’s Office accused Tavárez of participating in an international network of laundering assets from drug trafficking, to which they attributed the laundering of about RD $ 100 million.
At the time of his arrest, authorities showed $ 1,003,000.00; 24,500.00 euros and RD $ 150,000.00, and 20 luxury vehicles confiscated in 14 home violations committed simultaneously in the National District, and the provinces of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Nouel, La Vega and Santiago.
Against the lady, the then judge of Permanent Attention of the National District, Jose Alexander Vargas, dictated three months of preventive prison with sending to the jail of Najayo in March of 2013. Half a year later a court ordered the freedom of the woman.
A public figure joins the case and is the communicator Dianabel Gómez. A phrase from the ex-wife of sports reporter Franklin Mirava has been recalled on the networks: “I prefer prison to be with him”, as well as a video in which he claims to be a partner of a dealer in Santiago.
“Yeah, I sell vehicles,” she says during an interview on a Sunday entertainment show and continues, “In Santiago, I’m a partner,” a comment she made between laughs before pointing out she can’t set up a business alone.
After omitting the name of the company at various times, he said his name was Alex González Motors. The center for buying and selling new and used vehicles, located at kilometer 11 of the Duarte Highway in Santiago.
A legislator is further mentioned among those allegedly involved.
Upon learning of the appeal of the coercive measure of Jean Alain Rodríguez, the former prosecutor of the National District stated that the deputy for Pedernales of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Héctor Darío Féliz Féliz, Is being investigated after he moved his vehicle to “one of the extraditable.” Contrary to the rest, the lower house legislature was not arrested for the immunity conferred on him by his office.
This representative said on Thursday that he “only gave one ball” to his friend Juan Maldonado.
Others in the group are Delfina Assumpció Polanco i Lenin Bladimir Torres Well, Of which no information is known. But these were only the names that were known until yesterday evening, as at night the Attorney General’s Office revealed new individuals.
The arrested are joined by Rafael Albert de Jesús, Marisol López Ceballo (Mary); Elva Teresa Polanco, Víctor Elpidio Paulino Herrera, Francisco Linares Pimentel, Adolfo Torres Sanabia and Julio César Jiménez Talavera.
Falcon?
Marine species have already been left to give way to new animals in the name of operations. Although the name of this operation is not directly the qualifier of the bird, it takes its name by the peregrine falcon.
The Public Ministry reported on Wednesday that together with the National Directorate of Drug Control (DNCD) and the support of the Drug Control Administration (DEA), the United States launched Operation Falcon: an offensive against drug trafficking and money laundering in Santiago, Santo Domingo, the National District and other geographical demarcations.
In this investigation, more than 80 home violations were committed, led by 60 prosecutors, who occupied “a lot of evidence,” including exorbitant amounts of dollars, high-end vehicles and more than five gas stations, according to the director. of Persecution.