Santo Domingo.- Navy commander Edwin R. Dominici on Friday denied the theft of a naval vessel by Haiti nationals, calling the craft a makeshift boat which “got loose from its moorings and was retrieved by haitan fishermen in the maritime border.”
FILE.- Several Haitians who allegedly stole a Dominican Navy patrol boat in Manzanillo bay in Montecristi province (northwest) were arrested in the Haiti town Fort Liberte.
Local media report that the boat was swiped from the pier next to the naval station by the foreigners who frequently violate Dominican territorial waters.
The suspects’ names weren’t provided.
The foreigners reportedly stolen the boat early Thursday morning and fled west along the northern coast, where a Haiti police patrol spotted it and arrested the suspects.
Dominican Naval and Army Intelligence and Border Corp agents worked jointly with Haiti police to retrieve the boat
Several years ago Haitian criminals also stole an inflatable Zodiac which had been donated by the U.S. Navy, but left it abandoned without its engine on one of the islets in the Cayos Siete Hermanos archipelago.