Spanish
Santo Domingo.- The Public Ministry has launched, since this Saturday, Operation Begonias with multiple raids in the province of Santo Domingo, the result of an extensive investigation initiated several months ago to dismantle transnational human trafficking networks for the purpose of sexual exploitation and with which it rescued more than 40 women.
The General Directorate of Prosecution of the Public Ministry and the Specialized Prosecutor's Office against the Illicit Trafficking of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons (PETT) announced that prosecutors will file criminal charges against eight defendants (four men and four women) Colombians and Dominicans. The operation, in conjunction with the Prosecutor's Office of Santo Domingo Este, has the support of the Special Division of Investigation of Transnational Crimes (Deidet) and the Human Trafficking Department of the National Police. Prosecutors from the Task Force of the General Directorate of Prosecution also participated, as well as members of the PETT Investigation Department and the Witness and Victim Protection Unit of the Public Ministry. The investigation against the networks was supported by the Anti Trafficking Bureau (ATB). A team of 10 prosecutors, more than 85 National Police agents, and several investigation technicians and specialists in victim assistance mobilized from the early hours of Saturday. During the operation, the prosecution teams seized cash, six vehicles, electronic equipment, notebooks, and different narcotic drugs. Similarly, the properties that were used as operational spaces for the network were seized, including a multi-level building.You may be interested in: Preventive prison requested against two accused of sexual exploitation in Puerto Plata
Court prosecutor Yoanna Bejarán Álvarez, head of the PETT, highlighted the importance of the new operation against human trafficking networks. “These operations, which are preceded by extensive investigative work, respond to the actions promoted by the management of Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso against transnational crime”, said Bejarán Álvarez. He explained that the defendants arrested as part of Operation Begonias recruited in Colombia and moved to the country the young women they sexually exploited. The accused offered the victims jobs as bartenders or waitresses in hotels. After bringing them in, they retained their documents and threatened to harm their families in Colombia, while pressuring them for an alleged debt of $3,500 to $4,000 that they made them pay if they wanted to accept the promise that they could release them..
