Former police officer linked to international drug trafficking network sentenced to 30 years

Former Lieutenant Colonel Hans Wender Lluberes Sánchez, implicated in a stash of 454 kilograms of cocaine, will also have to pay a fine of RD$50 million.

Santo Domingo.–A court sentenced former lieutenant colonel of the National Police Hans Wender Lluberes Sánchez, identified as the ringleader of an international drug trafficking network linked to the seizure of 454 kilograms of cocaine in 2015, to 30 years in prison. In addition, he must pay a fine of RD$50 million.

Based on the evidence presented by the prosecution, former Lieutenant Colonel Hans Wender Lluberes Sánchez was sentenced to the maximum penalty, in addition to the payment of a fine of RD$50 million in favor of the Dominican State. According to the record, prepared by the investigating prosecutor Bianca Durán, the investigations began after intelligence work by the Joint Information and Coordination Center (CICC), attached to the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD), which allowed the dismantling of the criminal structure made up of Dominican and Venezuelan citizens. The document details that, as a result of the monitoring, on March 17, 2015, a team coordinated by the Public Ministry along with members of the CICC-DNCD executed search warrants on an aircraft from Venezuela, after its arrival at Las Américas International Airport (AILA), where the narcotic substance was seized.

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Pilots Edmundo José Medina Torrealba and Francisco Javier Velasco Tory, as well as passengers José Manuel Houtman Fonseca, José Nicolás Velásquez Murcia, and Mirian de Jesús Díaz Martín, all of Venezuelan nationality, were traveling on the aircraft, and they were also judicially processed for the case. According to investigations, Lluberes Sánchez was on the outskirts of the air terminal to make payments related to the illicit operation. However, upon realizing the intervention of the authorities and the arrests, he fled, being subsequently captured at the Punta Cana International Airport. The Public Ministry, represented by prosecutors Milcíades Guzmán Leonardo and Ignacio Rojas, managed to demonstrate the defendant’s criminal responsibility before the court. The sentence was handed down by the judges of the Second Collegiate Court of Santo Domingo East, Josefina Ubiera Guerrero (president), Ana Miledys Taveras and Isaías Martínez, who ordered the fulfillment of the sentence in the Correction and Rehabilitation Center (CCR) of Najayo, in the province of San Cristóbal.

Others convicted in the case

The Public Ministry recalled that in December 2019 the Prosecutor’s Office of Santo Domingo Este obtained sentences of between 5 and 30 years in prison against nine other individuals involved in the drug trafficking network led by Lluberes Sánchez. In that process, the court imposed 30 years in prison on pilots Francisco Javier Velasco Tory and Edmundo José Medina Torrealba. Likewise, former second lieutenant of the Dominican Republic Army (ERD) Jesús Elías Pérez Vásquez, former captain of the ERD Roberto Segura Peña and José Luciano, a former DNCD agent assigned to the air terminal, were sentenced to 20 years in prison. Similarly, Francisco Javier de Paula Mena, an employee of the company SERVAIR, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan citizens José Nicolás Velásquez Murcia, José Manuel Houtman Fonseca, and Mirian de Jesús Díaz Marín received sentences of five years in prison. The group was found guilty of violating several articles of Law No. 50-88 on Drugs and Controlled Substances, as well as provisions of Law No. 631-16 for the Control and Regulation of Weapons, Ammunition and Related Materials, to the detriment of the Dominican State.