Santo Domingo.- Hundreds of large motorcycles are being smuggled into Dominican Republic, dodging Customs taxes and driven without license plates, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (AMET) revealed Wednesday.
Amet spokesman Jacobo Mateo Moquete said agents have stopped dozens of bikers he affirms have dodged paying taxes on motorcycles as big as 750, 1,000 and 1,100 CCs without documents.
He said the motorcycles’ owners include young businessmen , professionals, military, police and former residents of the United States.
He said the impounded motorcycles are remanded to the Customs Agency if their owners fail to produce license plates after being arrested for traffic violations.
"We found that many high-powered motorcycles being driven in the country entered illegally, dismantled and within certain shipments from the United States," the official said, stressing that they enter unbeknownst to Customs inspectors. “The owners then proceed to reassemble them in certain workshops in the capital and the interior of country.”
Mateo’s revelation comes one day after he announced several arrests and confiscation of large motorcycles, for violations including riding in tunnels and overpasses and no helmets, when Amet agents had to give chase to a bikers club from La Romana, whose members failed to heed the order to pull over.