No impunity in case of dead German, vanished US$1.5M: Top prosecutor

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Francisco Dominguez on Monday repeated chief of National Police Manuel Castro’s pledge, vowing no impunity the case of a raid of a gated community in Dominican Republic’s resort region of Sosua, Puerto Plata province, where police agents allegedly stole RD$60 million (US$1.5M), jewelry, gold bars, Rolex watches among other belongings from a group of Germans.

He said the investigation is getting the "finishing touches" to determine the implications of alleged Assistant DAs and Police agents. "It’s two processes among two Germans sectors, and apparently some officers committed serious offenses, and in this case the Justice Ministry’s position is that there can be no impunity."

Those responsible will be identified, he said, “apparently if there was looting and the raid used to get rich and that cannot be allowed.”

Meanwhile the Puerto Plata Office of the Prosecutor widens the investigation into the case involving several Germans accused of forming part of a “doomsday sect,” as well as a group of police agents and officers charged with the robbery perpetrated in the course of the October, 2012 raid at the gated community La Mulata III, where Peter Ebert Demetrick was killed in an alleged shootout.

One day after the raid the authorities said the evidence gathered at the crime scene included high-caliber weapons also, among other criminal offenses by German nationals Peter Brunck, Daniel Roland Brunck and Solvey Dietrich.

The National Police said it has conducted a preliminary investigation resulting in reprimands and the firing of some senior officers, as part of the report submitted to the Justice Ministry, which announced the wideing of th probe to identify those involved and file criminal charges based on the evidence.

Senior officers fired

On July 19 the expanding case prompted the Police Council to recommend the forced retirement and firing of 14 members, including two colonels, all investigated in the complaint filed in the heels of the alleged illegal raid at La Mulata III.