The DNCD and the Public Ministry dismantled an illegal marijuana crop of 1,835 plants in a mountain zone of Bani, Peravia province.[1] The intervention followed surveillance and tracking work in the Monteria section of Bani municipality.[1] State intelligence agencies and Dominican Air Force helicopters supported the joint operation.[2] Helicopters helped pinpoint the exact area and coordinate the intervention in a hard-to-reach zone.[1] Investigators linked several people to growing and selling the marijuana, including the Dominican landowner and two Haitian citizens.[1] DNCD spokesman Carlos Devers urged the suspects, already identified, to surrender to face charges under Law 50-88 on Drugs and Controlled Substances.[1] The suspects were not publicly named because the investigation was in a preliminary phase.[2] The suspects remained fugitives while security forces kept a cordon in place to capture them and bring them before the courts.[1]
Authorities located 1,835 marijuana plants described as about two feet tall.[2] Infobae, citing Listin Diario, described plants up to two metres tall, plus two buckets of harvested marijuana, five extractors, four extension cords, an irrigation pump and other cultivation materials.[1] Officers also seized a hammer, pliers, a tank, water bottles, foam mattresses, a wheelbarrow, cloth rolls, a saw and fuel jugs.[2] Agents seized hundreds of bags of soil and prepared seeds stored in an improvised hut for expanding production.[2]
The seized plants were to be sent to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences for analysis and legal proceedings.[1] Devers said the volume of plants could make the case one of the largest recent marijuana seizures in the country.[2] DNCD members and Peravia prosecutors stayed in the area conducting tracking work to apprehend anyone else involved.[2]
