Man sentenced to 15 years in prison for human trafficking and migrant smuggling

Santo Domingo.– A court in the judicial district of Santiago sentenced a 15-year prison term to a man found guilty of deceiving two Colombian citizens to bring them to the Dominican Republic and forcing them into prostitution.

The convicted individual, Alexander Antonio Rodríguez, known as “Mello Cotorra”, was found guilty of violating Law 137-03 on Human Trafficking and Illicit Smuggling of Migrants, after it was proven that he used false job offers to lure victims into the country.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s indictment, the defendant promised the women they would work as waitresses, but once they arrived in Dominican territory, he subjected them to threats, physical assaults, and intimidation, forcing them to offer sexual services to pay off an alleged debt of $4,000 that he attributed to them for travel expenses.

The investigation establishes that the victims entered the country on January 14, 2024, through the Las Américas International Airport (AILA), after the now-convicted individual organized their transfer from Medellín, Colombia.

During the trial, the Public Prosecutor’s Office presented evidence showing that Rodríguez exercised control over the victims through physical violence, verbal abuse, and threats, in addition to managing the money obtained from sexual exploitation. The accusation also established that one of the women was a victim of sexual assault by the convicted individual.

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The case came to light when a member of the Dominican Republic Army intervened after receiving a report from a citizen who alerted about an assault that occurred in the vicinity of a nightlife establishment in the municipality of Puñal, Santiago province. At that moment, Rodríguez was arrested and subsequently brought to justice.

The sentence was handed down by the Third Collegiate Court of Santiago, accepting the evidence presented by the Public Prosecutor’s Office during the judicial process.