Dominican Republic says colonel and officers stole police weapons and ammunition to sell to Haitians

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Authorities in the Dominican Republic have arrested a colonel and nine officers accused of stealing weapons and ammunition from the police department’s armory and illegally selling them to people including criminals in neighboring Haiti, where violence has surged.

The crackdown that began Sunday is ongoing as officials continue to track down weapons and military supplies. The investigation began when authorities started reviewing inventories at the armory.

The Associated Press obtained an official document on Thursday that sheds details on the ongoing investigation, including that the stolen supplies were sold to Haitians.

The document stated that one of the suspects arrested, a woman who lives in the southern Dominican province of Pedernales, which borders Haiti, is accused of receiving dozens of boxes of ammunition of different calibers that were sold from $86 to $99 each. It noted that Miguelina Bello Segura sold them to Haitians who would routinely use them to commit crimes.

The document also stated that the colonel who was arrested, Narciso Antonio Feliz Romero, received cash stuffed into a backpack from an officer who sold ammunition via a contact in Haiti.

Attorneys for Bello and Feliz could not be immediately reached for comment.

Overall, the scheme officials say was run by Feliz illegally sold more than 900,000 projectiles.

It wasn’t immediately known how many weapons and what types were sold or when the group began operating. Officials have not released details, saying the investigation is ongoing.

Dominican President Luis Abinader has long criticized the situation in Haiti and taken steps that have frayed the countries’ tenuous ties including targeting migrants and building a wall along the border that both nations share on the island of Hispaniola.

Wilson Camacho, head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office that focuses on administrative corruption, has called the case “extremely serious” and said it placed the country’s national security at risk.

Last year, the U.N. published a report noting that weapons and ammunition reach Haiti largely via the Dominican Republic, and, to some extent, Jamaica.

Violence in Haiti has surged in recent weeks, with heavily armed gangs invading once peaceful neighborhoods and forcing the main international airport to temporarily close after striking three commercial flights.