3 Israelis arrested at Dominican airport, 23 packages of cocaine seized
Dominican authorities arrest Israelis at Punta Cana airport, seize drugs before they were heading to Germany
Translated by Alqyas from Sarmad — Original source
Authorities in the Dominican Republic announced the arrest of three Israelis at Punta Cana International Airport as they attempted to smuggle quantities of cocaine inside their luggage before departing for Frankfurt, Germany.
According to official statements from the Dominican National Anti-Drug Administration and press reports, the arrests were carried out in two separate incidents at the same airport. In the first operation on November 12, authorities detained a 40-year-old Israeli traveler named Dmitry Roy Fomin after X-ray machines revealed a false bottom made of wooden panels in his suitcase.
Inside the bag, officials found seven packages suspected to be cocaine, along with two mobile phones and cash in US dollars, Israeli shekels, and Dominican pesos.
In the second operation on November 14, two other Israeli citizens, a man and a woman aged 38 named Daria Fedorova and Roman Fedorova, were arrested before boarding a flight to Frankfurt.
A search of their luggage, conducted in the presence of the prosecutor’s office, uncovered 16 packages of cocaine hidden in double-walled secret compartments—seven packages in the first bag and nine in the second—along with the seizure of three mobile phones, electronic equipment, and foreign currency. The total number of seized packages across both operations amounted to 23 packages of suspected narcotics.
Reports from the newspaper “El Nacional” and the website “WNet News” indicated that intelligence and anti-drug agencies are expanding their investigations to determine whether the two incidents are linked to an international criminal network recruiting Israeli citizens as couriers to smuggle drugs from the Caribbean region to Europe.
The three detainees were referred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the La Altagracia province to face charges related to violations of the law on drugs and controlled substances, while the seized samples were sent to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences for identification and precise weight determination.
