Gunmen haul off US$ 1.2M in gold, silver ore from Dominican mine

BONAO, Dominican Republic. – A truck carrying 2,459 kilos of gold and silver precipitate worth US$ 1.2 million of the Dominican miner CORMIDOM was assaulted by unidentified gunmen who chased the driver and intercepted it near the town of Villa Altagracia on the Duarte highway, the country’s busiest, 43 kilometers north of the Dominican capital Santo Domingo.

According to local media, the metal was transported in a truck of the company Synchro Logistic and as the driver headed out of the Cerro Maimon Mine, in the community Los Martinez, Monseñor Noel province (central), was chased and assaulted using high caliber weapons around 10:30am.

The ore was carried in 19, 55 gallons tanks in a Daihatsu truck driver identified as Ignacio de los Santos, who was accompanied by a security guard, the retired Police major Victor Rosario Concepcion.

According to the driver the truck was intercepted by five heavily armed men who pulled up alongside in a red car of unspecified make, who bound them prior to escaping.