2,194 kg of marijuana seized from gas tanker in Pedernales
CESFRONT and DNCD officers seized about 2,194 kg of suspected marijuana hidden in a gas tanker on the Pedernales-Oviedo road on 17 May 2025 after the driver fled. The truck is registered to a man authorities urged to surrender, and investigators said the load came from Jamaica via Haiti in the largest border marijuana seizure to date.
CESFRONT officers and DNCD agents intercepted a tanker truck on Avenida Libertad
on the Pedernales-Oviedo road near the Los Olivares farm area.[1]The driver
abandoned the vehicle and fled when he saw the officers.[1]The tanker is
registered to Héctor Manuel Méndez Rodríguez.[1]The Public Ministry and the
DNCD said they were continuing investigations to arrest and prosecute members of
the trafficking network.[1]
Inside the gas tank, officers found 1,043 packages of suspected marijuana
weighing about 4,836 pounds, about 2,194 kilograms.[1]InSight Crime described
the same Pedernales haul as 2.7 tons of marijuana seized on 17 May.[2][3]Officers also found 11 separate packages of white powder presumed to be cocaine,
which are not counted in the cannabis total.[1]The packages were sent under
chain of custody to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences to determine
their exact type and weight.[1]The DNCD called it the largest suspected
marijuana load ever seized on the Haitian-Dominican border.[1][3]
Investigators said the network moves drugs from Jamaica to Haiti and the
Dominican Republic.[1]The load had come from Jamaica and entered the
Dominican Republic by truck through Haiti.[2][3]The truck had been adapted to
look like a gas transporter in order to conceal drugs.[1]
Photos and video
Seized packages from the Pedernales tanker truck. Photo: Jorge Martínez / Listín DiarioPhoto details
Original
800 × 1200 px · JPEG · 308 KB
SHA-256
c8d4b8f3b96228bc…
Retrieved
6 Nov 2026
Shown
the publisher's file, through an image proxy
Source: Listín DiarioSeized load from the Pedernales tanker operation. Photo: Jorge Martínez / Listín DiarioPhoto details
InSight Crime gives the weight as 2.7 tons while the DNCD-based Listin Diario account gives 4,836 pounds, about 2,194 kg; the report uses the more precise DNCD figure.
No arrests at the scene were reported; the driver fled and the registered owner was sought, with no charges or court outcome reported.
The packages were sent to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences for exact type and weight confirmation, which was still pending in these reports.
The 11 packages of white powder presumed to be cocaine have no confirmed weight or type and are excluded from cannabis figures.
The same InSight Crime article also describes a separate 3-ton seizure at the Port of Haina Oriental about two weeks earlier, left out here as a different event already covered elsewhere.
Year-to-date and 2020-2024 seizure totals mentioned in the articles are general enforcement statistics and are left out of the figures for this single seizure.
Coordinates mark the Pedernales town area, not the exact roadside interception point.
InSight Crime says 2.7 tons, while the DNCD-based figure already cited in the report is 4,836 pounds, about 2,194 kg; the report keeps the more precise DNCD figure.
The National Police said 28 people were detained in a preventive sweep across La Vega province on 30 October 2026, alongside soldiers and DNCD drug agents. Police reported 108 portions of suspected marijuana and eight knives, but gave no weight for the drug and no grounds for the detentions.
The DNCD reported seizing 11,065.01 kg of marijuana and 16.44 kg of hashish between April and June 2026, part of 16,671.16 kg of all drugs in its second-quarter statistical summary. The same operations produced 12,548 detentions, most of them in June, when San José de Ocoa accounted for 7,789.97 kg of marijuana.
Dominican anti-drug agents seized 11 packages of suspected marijuana hidden inside a bench seat shipped from Miami to Las Américas airport in Boca Chica. No arrests were reported, and the material was sent to the national forensics institute while prosecutors investigate those responsible and the shipment's destination.
Three Dominicans were detained off Baní after a 15-hour air-sea-land pursuit intercepted a 32-foot boat carrying 1,360 suspected cocaine packages and 30 blocks of apparent marijuana. The DNCD-led operation with US and Colombian support sent the 1,390 packages for forensic analysis, with the network investigation still open.
