Crackdown on illegal weapons

SantoDomingo.- Police chief General Manuel Castro Castillo has called onthe institutions in the Citizen Safety Plan, particularly the Justice System and the Legal Branch, to fulfill their role so thatcriminals who have been imprisoned are not set free so easily.

He referredto the case of a criminal who was arrested last month and sent to court for illegalpossession of a weapon. He said that the man was set free only to kill two people outside a colmadón a few days later.

“In orderto considerably reduce criminal acts, each institution, each system has tofulfill its role,” he stated.

The policechief reiterated that the Law on Bearing and Owning Firearms needed to bechanged, so that criminals could be punished with preventive custody instead of being set free on bail.

He alsoassured that in order to reduce violent deaths the Police was carrying outnationwide operations to confiscate illegal weapons from known criminals andpeople who go to businesses where alcoholic drinks are sold.

“The Policeis implementing a plan to increase operational actions and so create a cultureof social control against the troublemakers who try and disrupt the peace forthe Dominican people,” he said.