Prostitution ring dismantled in Puerto Plata

SANTO DOMINGO.- The Specialized Prosecutor’s Office Against the Illicit Trafficking of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons (PETT) and the Puerto Plata Prosecutor’s Office rescued 20 women, including several foreigners, who were being sexually exploited in nightclubs in the province. 

The arrests occurred during simultaneous raids at the Keobs Night Club on Las Palomas Street, at the Carlos III building on Primera Cerros del Atlántico Street, and at a hotel in Puerto Plata. 

It was reported that the network engaged in the crime of sexual exploitation of its Dominican, Haitian, and Colombian victims, whom they kept under coercion and with limited outings, while forcing them to perform private dances for clients, in exchange for fees that were collected directly by the business managers.

Prosecutors arrested Rocío Nicole Paulino (Mamasan), Vanesa Sirete de Ventura, Medelyn Antorcha, Francisco Cortés, and Luis Carlos Céspedes Herrera as alleged perpetrators of the action in simultaneous raids carried out by the Specialized Joint Investigation Unit Against the Illicit Trafficking of Migrants and Related Crimes (Uitimc), attached to the PETT, in coordination with the Puerto Plata Prosecutor’s Office and the Special Division of Investigation of Transnational Crimes (Deidet) of the National Police. 

Authorities are also pursuing a woman linked to the network.

These actions constitute a clear violation of the provisions of Law 137-03 on Illicit Trafficking of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons, indicated the court prosecutor Yoana Bejarán, head of the PETT, who worked on the investigation with the prosecutor of Puerto Plata, Kelmi Duncan Torres, and the prosecutor Carmelina Soto.

The operation, which involved members of the National Police’s Central Directorate for Prevention and the National Police’s Department of Investigation of Trafficking in Persons, as well as the NGO Anti-Trafficking Bureau (ATB), resulted in the seizure of a 12-gauge shotgun with more than twenty cartridges. In addition, approximately 900,000 pesos and 26,600 dollars were confiscated.