First modification:
“The preliminary accusation of the Public Ministry against the defendants is of association of criminals, embezzlement, coalition of officials, falsification of public and private documents, bribery and illicit campaign financing on an unprecedented scale, money laundering, among others” , reported the Attorney General’s Office.
Among the twenty detainees, three ex-ministers from the past government of Danilo Medina and a former comptroller of the Republic. Is about the former ministers of the Presidency, José Ramón Peralta; of the Treasury, Donald Guerrero, and of Public Works, Gonzalo Castillo, who was the candidate of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) for the 2023 presidential elections, finishing in second position, as well as the former Comptroller General of the Republic Daniel Omar Caamaño.
Other former high officials were also arrested. The former director of the State Sugar Council (CEA), Luis Miguel Piccirilo, was arrested; the former director of the National Cadastre, Claudio Silver Peña, and the former directors of Casinos and Gambling, Oscar Chalas Guerrero and Julián Omar Fernández.
In the operation, carried out this past weekend, 40 searches were carried out in the National District, the province of Santo Domingo, San Pedro de Macorís and La Romana, in which 40 prosecutors, dozens of technicians from different security units participated, investigation, 300 members of the National Police and a large administrative support team.
Operation Squid is the seventh case to dismantle corrupt networks investigated by the Special Prosecutor for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), during the term of President Luis Abinader, joining “Antipulpo”, “Medusa”, “Falcón”, “Operation Larva”.
In the last Corruption Perception Index published by the Organization for International Transparency, the Dominican Republic obtained 32 points, an improvement over previous years. With this score, it is placed in position number 123 of the 180 that the government corruption ranking has.
“We are talking, from what we know so far, of more than 60,000 million pesos (1,108 million dollars), which could become the largest case of corruption in our history.”
Reaction of Joseph Abreu, coordinator of Citizen Participation
