They are requesting pretrial detention for a sex trafficking ring in Puerto Plata.

SANTO DOMINGO. – The Public Prosecutor’s Office requested 18 months of preventive detention for the members of a sex trafficking network that operated in Puerto Plata, after the rescue of 20 women victims of different nationalities.

The request was filed with the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office Against the Illicit Trafficking of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons (PETT) and the Puerto Plata Prosecutor’s Office, against Rocío Nicole Paulino (Mamasan), Vanesa Sirete de Ventura, Medelyn Antorcha, Francisco Cortés, and Luis Carlos Céspedes Herrera, while another woman linked to the network continues to be pursued.

The prosecutors in charge, Yoana Bejarán, Kelmi Duncan Torres, and Carmelina Soto, also asked to declare the case a complex transmutation because of the structure’s organized operation.

Victim rescue and raids

The defendants were arrested during simultaneous raids carried out by the Specialized Joint Investigation Unit Against the Illicit Trafficking of Migrants and Related Crimes (Uitimc), in coordination with the Prosecution Directorate of the Public Ministry, the Puerto Plata Prosecutor’s Office, and the Special Division of Investigation of Transnational Crimes (Deidet) of the National Police.

The raids took place at the Keobs Night Club on Las Palomas Street, the Carlos III building on Primera Cerros del Atlántico Street, and a hotel in Puerto Plata. Twenty Dominican, Haitian, and Colombian women, victims of systematic sexual exploitation, were rescued during these operations.

Modus operandi of the network

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the structure recruited women through deception and exploitation of their vulnerability, held them in establishments, restricted their mobility through rules, fines, and constant surveillance, and forced them into sexual exploitation.

The payments from clients were managed by the defendants, while the victims received no benefit whatsoever, thus constituting the governing verbs of the crime of human trafficking: recruiting, transporting, harboring, retaining, and exploiting for illicit profit.

Evidence seized

During the raids, a 12-gauge shotgun with more than 20 cartridges, 900,000 pesos and 26,600 dollars, yellow metal jewelry (presumably gold), electronic equipment, notebooks, notepads, and two vehicles: a Hyundai Sonata and a Suzuki, were seized.

Legal classification

The Public Prosecutor’s Office provisionally classified the acts as aggravated human trafficking, aggravated pimping, and money laundering, in accordance with current Dominican laws.

Authorities emphasized that this case demonstrates the operation of networks that profit from the vulnerability of women, and reiterated their commitment to prosecuting these crimes throughout the country.