Ex-cops behind most Dominican Republic murders, Justice minister

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Francisco Domínguez warned Sunday that "underworld business" over drugs is behind most of the country’s executions, with former cops involved in nearly all of them, and cautioned against letting those crimes become as common as in Mexico.

"Many of them are Dominicans who’ve done shakedowns, or have cheated another group of drug traffickers, mostly in New York or in Puerto Rico, but in the United States above all," the official said.

He regrets that most cases of hired killings end up in total impunity,which is one of the largest incentives for crime.

Dominguez, interviewed on Esferas de Poder on Santo Domingo TV, reiterated that former agents are behind most of the killings, and "were part of the teams which ‘put thugs down."

He called for sentences as long as 40 years in prison for contract killings, through a reform leading to more drastic criminal code. "A person who kills 30, 40 people, is a person who has mentally lost all control and absolutely no respect for anything, is a pure psychopath."