SANTO DOMINGO – Four men linked to drug running and murder-for-hire were gunned down in two separate violent incidents in the northern Dominican Republic, the National Police said Tuesday.
Two of the victims were slain Monday night by unknown assailants inside an SUV that was later abandoned on a highway in La Vega province.
The dead were identified as Junior Ramon Jimenez Pichardo, 21, and Ramon Eduardo Sanchez Almonte, 17, who according to a police communique had recently returned to Colombia.
Authorities said the two men were involved in the sale and distribution of drugs in the northern province of Santiago.
The other victims, two suspected killers-for-hire, died in a shootout with police who were raiding the Villa Magisterial sector of Santiago.
Also wounded in the gun battle were three officers and a prosecutor, the National Police said.
The suspects were in possession of a rifle with more than 200 rounds of ammunition as well as two pistols, each with a 30-shot clip, according to the police.
Authorities are investigating to find a possible connection between the two cases, since one of the victims in the shootout with the police had traveled to Colombia with Jimenez and Sanchez.
source: LatinHeraldTribune |