Let's go to the Caribbean, namely the Dominican Republic, where a Pandora's box has been opened by the theft of ammunition within the domestic police forces. Let's see the coverage of our correspondent Deisy Toussaint.
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00:00Let's go to the Caribbean, namely the Dominican Republic, where the Pandora box has been opened
00:05by the theft of ammunition within the domestic police forces.
00:08Let's see the coverage of our correspondent Daisy Toussaint.
00:17In the Dominican Republic, a hearing was held in the Pandora case, which is related to a
00:21network corruption within the police, where over 900,000 ammunition projectiles had been
00:27allegedly stolen from the national police warehouses, exposing a web of internal corruption.
00:34Let's make crystal clear that on this legal process, excluding civilian Magdalena Bayo,
00:39the rest of defendants betrayed their uniform, betrayed their institution and betrayed their
00:43country.
00:44Fortunately, some of them have held their accountability in court, as they have decided
00:48to collaborate with the Public Prosecutor's Office, particularly.
00:52Three defendants have so far collaborated with the Public Prosecutor's Office.
01:00In the Pandora case, 10 people have been charged, 9 of them police officers and a civilian.
01:05The Public Prosecutor's Office unfolded that this criminal network used to steal ammunition.
01:10Right afterwards, they allocated that ammunition to 80 through border markets.
01:14The detained police officers were responsible for the custody of arms and ammunition, so
01:19they managed the arms depot so they altered all this to cover up the projectiles' theft.
01:24Thus, in one year, they have embezzled over 64 million pesos, equal to over 1 million
01:30dollars from the state.
01:33Today, we exposed our arguments abided by law, proving the untruth of what was stated
01:38by the Public Prosecutor's Office.
01:40We are taking a recess now.
01:42To continue with the hearing tomorrow at 2 p.m., we are convinced that the Chief Justice
01:46will be sovereign, independent, so that the authorities' ruling will be grounded in the
01:50principles and legal precepts.
01:54The case was described as complex, but the Chief Justice issued a verdict.
01:58Seven of the 10 defendants were remanded in custody, while the other three offenders received
02:03economic guarantees, in addition to reporting daily to the supervisor.
02:07Meanwhile, Miguelina Bello, the civilian involved, was given house arrest.
02:15You must understand that the Public Prosecutor's Office is charging the majority of defendants
02:19with association of wrongdoers, which is globally known as criminal association.
02:25The entity accuses them of arms trafficking and an array of other allegations due to some
02:29weapons of the national police have gone missing.
02:33The Pandora case brought to light both the vulnerability of the country's security entities
02:38and the urgent need for reforms within the national police.
02:42But withstanding, defense attorneys will always seek to find their clients not guilty.
02:50The inspectorate issued a piece of evidence that determines that our defendant is discharged
02:54from any kind of responsibility.
02:57Grounded in he didn't have the key to the warehouse, where the ammunition was kept,
03:00in addition, several defendants, namely three of them, excluding Miguelina, they will make
03:05agreements with the Public Prosecutor's Office, so they will hold their criminal responsibility.
03:09But our client won't make any agreement because our defendant has no responsibility.
03:15Thus he won't.
03:16Admit a crime he did not commit.
03:21Dominican people have spotlighted this trial for both the magnitude of the theft and the
03:26fragility of the institutions in charge of public security.