Dominican Republic confronts drug‑trafficking cybercrime and police reform waste

In Santo Domingo, a Dominican informant known only as “operator number two” detailed his involvement in international drug trafficking, describing how heroin was hidden inside cheese blocks shipped from a New York pizzeria and intercepted on Interstate 95 in Pennsylvania, leading to a 7‑year‑5‑month prison sentence and subsequent deportation. After returning to the Dominican Republic, he turned to cybercrime, exploiting call‑center skills and social‑engineering tactics to defraud elderly U.S. citizens through timeshare scams and automated extortion, claiming to have become a millionaire on three occasions.

Separately, former legislator and physician Ramón Ceballos publicly criticized the government’s recent police reform, asserting that more than 11 billion Dominican pesos have been squandered on cosmetic changes such as new uniforms, while fundamental issues like training, abuse, and links to organized crime remain unaddressed. He called for mandatory psychological assessments of officers, noting that a significant portion of the population suffers from severe mental health conditions that may affect policing.

Both revelations highlight ongoing challenges of drug‑related crime and ineffective public‑security spending in the Dominican Republic.