Alleged mastermind and man who hired to kill arrested in David Ortiz case
The National Police announced the arrest on Friday, 28 June 2019, of two of three persons still sought in the case where Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz was almost killed on 9 June at the Dial Bar & Lounge of Av. Venezuela. That evening, Ortiz was engaged in conversation with his friend Sixto David Fernández Vásquez when he was shot in the back at close range by a man who had gotten off a motorcycle. The authorities say Ortiz was mistakenly shot. The authorities say that Fernández Vásquez was the target, not David Ortiz, but this was botched up by the contracted killer. Fernández was a regular at the Dial Bar & Lounge.
Arrested on Friday were the alleged attempted murder mastermind Victor Hugo Gómez Vásquez and his accomplice Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota.
Gómez Vásquez was arrested at a house located in the Residencial Carmen Renata III, in Pantoja, Santo Domingo West. As reported, Gómez Vásquez was sought in the US for his alleged role with a Texas drug trafficking ring related to Mexico’s Gulf Cartel and had arrived recently from on a boat trip from Puerto Rico.
Rodríguez Mota was detained off the coast of Samaná as he attempted to flee in a boat to Puerto Rico. Authorities said he carried an adulterated ID. The ID had Rodríguez Mota’s photo, but the data indicated it belonged to Jorge Enrique Leroux Matos.
Shortly before his arrest, Gomez Vasquez released a video statement denying that he was involved in the June 9 attack. “I don’t harm people. I’ve never harmed anyone,” he said in the video. Gómez said he would “never” order to kill Big Papi. He used the video, nevertheless, to tell on his cousin, Fernández Vásquez.
In the video he tells that his cousin dealt with capos. Fernández is known to be the owner of the Auto-Paint shop in Villa Consuelo, Santo Domingo. “Sixto David Fernández is not such a saint, he is not simply a businessman who does nothing wrong, he dedicates himself to approach travelers, Dominicanyorks, and introduces them to the local capos of the Dominican Republic,” said Gómez in the 7-minute video that is circulating on social media. Gómez said the Dominicanyorks return to the US and then send his cousin money to pay for luxury cars and apartments. He said sometimes his cousin did not use the money as he had agreed to and then would run into debt because he lives a lavish life of expensive women and expensive cars.
In the video, Gómez says that in Santo Domingo people know who David Fernández is. Gómez said that those who don’t believe him just have to check 10 past years of shipments that Fernández has received from Dominicanyorks. He explained Fernández is compensated for connecting the vendor and the buyer.
In turn, the other arrested on Friday, Rodríguez Mota is accused of hiring the contract murder. A surveillance video showed him at the Santo Domingo nightclub hours before the shooting and how he stalked Fernández as the later waited for his close friend David Ortiz and others to arrive.
Police say that Gómez Vásquez sought to kill his cousin, Sixto David Fernández, because Fernández had reported him to police years ago, leading to his arrest in 2011. Reports are now that Gómez had made a comment that he did not want to see Fernández, concerned that he could tell the authorities that he had come to the country, escaping arrest in the United States. This would have set off the move to kill Fernández.
The Police have arrested around 14 people in the shooting yet say one suspect is at large: Luis Alfredo Rivas Clase (El Cirujano). In this case, others under arrest are: Franklin Junior Merán (Rubirosa), José Eduardo Ciprián Lebrón, Carlos Rafael Álvarez, Lanny Estefanny Pérez Reyes, Rolfi Ferreira Cruz (the man who fired the shot at David Ortiz), Joel Rodríguez de la Cruz (Calamardo), Porfirio Ayendi Dechamps Vásquez (Nene), Reynaldo Rodríguez Valenzuela, Oliver Moisés Mirabal, Eddy Vladimir Féliz García (El Nata) and Gabriel Alexander Pérez Vizcaíno (Hueso) and Junior César La Hoz Vargas.
Over the weekend, a court ordered a year pre-trial custody to the three arrested on Friday, 28 June 2019 that were Alberto Rodríguez Mota, Julio César de la Hoz and Víctor Hugo Gómez Vásquez.
In a new development, the authorities say the price of the “job” was US$30,000 and not the RD$400,000 Police director General Ney Aldrin Bautista had said during a previous press conference.
Source: DR1, Bostonglode
July 6, 2019
Category: DR News |