Operation Kraken exposes drug trafficking network

Santo Domingo.- Operation Kraken exposed one of the most sophisticated criminal networks embedded within the Dominican Republic’s port logistics system — a structure that had been facilitating the export of drug shipments to Puerto Rico, the United States, Canada, and Europe since 2015.

According to the investigation led by the Specialized Anti–Money Laundering Prosecutor’s Office, DNCD, and the DEA, the group operated mainly in the eastern and southern regions. Large shipments of cocaine arrived through remote coastal areas of Barahona and were then transported by road to Boca Chica. There, the network relied on port employees, security staff, transporters, and crane and container-repair operators who helped move, hide, and load the drugs into containers at the Caucedo Multimodal Port.

The evidence shows that this structure provided “logistics services” for other drug trafficking groups, moving South American cocaine through a Caribbean route now heavily militarized by the United States. Members used their profits to buy luxury vehicles, properties, farms, and businesses that served as fronts for laundering illicit money, including investments tied to commerce and tourism.

How the network operated

Court documents describe a methodical system dependent on the collaboration of insiders across port security and logistics. Security personnel with relaxed inspections smuggled drugs in their own vehicles. Trucks with hidden compartments were used to evade controls, sometimes with the help of X-ray machine operators. Unauthorized individuals entered the port hidden in containers or cargo trucks, taking advantage of areas without cameras and coordinating pickups with complicit drivers.

Inside the port, the contraband was moved to the “empty depot,” known as “the desert,” where containers without cargo were held. There, workers discreetly inserted the drugs into selected containers. The organization also cloned container seals, replacing original seals with perfect replicas to avoid detection. Once loaded onto ships by RTG and gantry cranes, the contaminated containers were sent to destinations such as Puerto Rico, Miami, New York, Halifax, Antwerp, and Rotterdam.