Fatal armored truck heist’s main suspect vanishes

Santo Domingo.- The fatal armored truck heistat Bella Vista Mall was two months ago Monday, but the authorities have yet to apprehendJohn Emilio Percival Matos, whom the National Police and the National DistrictOffice of the Prosecutor say is the ringleader of a group of dangerous robbers.

The heist during which an armored truck guardwas gunned down and another seriously hurt netted the assailants around RD$3million.

After the authorities accused the former Army1st Lt. Percival Matos, son of retired Gen. Rafael Percival Peña, it wasannounced that the alleged robber would be handed over to police through HumanRights Committee representative Manuel Mercedes.

But the police officers’ alleged involvementin organizing the heist aborted the handover as Percival Matos feared for hislife, after which Mercedes said he had lost contact with the country’s mostwanted fugitive.