From his office Danilo Medina would have instructed officials to obtain funds for Gonzalo’s campaigns

According to the search warrant at the request of the Special Prosecutor for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), as part of the investigation against the defendants in Operation Squid, the alleged embezzlement of the State was part of a conspiracy to finance the political campaigns of 2019 against Leonel Fernández and in 2020 against President Luis Abinader.

The Public Ministry states in the document that in 2019, before the Primary Elections of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), the then President of the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina Sánchez, called a meeting in his Office of the National Palace, in which there were several high-level members of his team, instructed his closest officials, heads of Ministries and General Directorates who were present, to seek money for the political campaigns of 2019, (internal to the PLD) and that of 2020, knowing that this search was illegal.

The investigation against the former Minister of Finance, Donald Guerrero, detained along with those of Public Works and Administration of the Presidency, Gonzalo Castillo and José Ramón Peralta, respectively, began in early 2021 when the Attorney General’s Office began interrogating the former official.

In February, after some six months without exposure related to the case, the investigation against the former Minister of Finance grabbed the headlines, since the Chamber of Accounts reported that it was advancing at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, and several political figures had announced prompt actions. The arrest of at least 19 people and the 40 raids on homes and other places carried out over the weekend would be part of these actions.