A national call for wanted individuals to voluntarily surrender to Dominican authorities has yielded four new surrenders this weekend, including two teen suspects linked to the armed robbery of an active-duty army soldier, pushing the total number of people who have turned themselves in to 29 since President Luis Abinader launched the appeal last month. The push for voluntary surrender comes as Dominican law enforcement launched a major transparency and public safety initiative, rolling out a new centralized public database listing more than 50,000 people with active outstanding arrest warrants across the country.
Abinader first announced the appeal during his weekly televised address “La Agenda Semanal” on September 28, making a direct appeal to all people against whom active arrest warrants had been issued to turn themselves in peacefully before law enforcement launched a proactive, widespread manhunt. “Those who have arrest warrants should turn themselves in, because if they don’t, they will be sought before they commit another crime,” the president stated, framing the appeal as a proactive measure to prevent additional violent and criminal harm to Dominican communities.
Four new surrenders were recorded over the weekend, joining 25 people who had already turned themselves in by the end of last week. All 29 surrenders are counted among the 107 voluntary handovers recorded nationwide across the entire month of September, according to official National Police data.
The most high-profile adult surrender of the weekend was Eduardo Antonio de la Cruz Gabriel, a 27-year-old suspect better known by his alias “Niño Cuboy,” who turned himself in to National Police agents in response to an active warrant for his alleged role in an aggravated robbery and assault that took place in La Vega province. Court order number 2026-AJ-0085746, issued by the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services for the La Vega Judicial District, was active for de la Cruz Gabriel at the time of his surrender.
A second adult suspect, Wilson Gabriel Hilario Arias, who goes by the alias “El Lápiz,” surrendered to agents from the Criminal Investigation Department (commonly known by its Spanish acronym DICRIM) following negotiations led by local community leader and attorney Juan “Guanchy” Comprés. Hilario Arias is accused of involvement in a plot to carry out an attempted robbery of a lottery bank in the Jenny María community.
The two remaining weekend surrenders were 17-year-old minors, accused of taking part in a high-profile public robbery of a sergeant major from the Dominican Republic Army (ERD) in the Mendoza sector of eastern Santo Domingo. National Police confirmed via their official X (formerly Twitter) account that the soldier was assaulted and stripped of his service weapon during the attack, which was recorded on video and widely circulated across social media platforms. The two teens were turned over voluntarily to DICRIM’s Housing Investigation Section by a responsible adult, who also handed over the stolen .38-caliber service revolver (serial number 931194) as well as the clothing the suspects are believed to have worn during the robbery.
Shortly after President Abinader’s announcement, the National Police unveiled its updated centralized database of all outstanding arrest warrants on September 24. The database catalogs a total of 3,877 active warrants targeting 50,865 unique individuals, sorted into 31 distinct criminal categories. National Police spokesperson Diego Pesqueira explained that the discrepancy between the number of warrants and number of individuals stems from the fact that many wanted people have multiple active warrants outstanding against them for different offenses.
Breaking down the data by offense type, the largest share of active warrants – 17,635, or 32.7% of all outstanding orders – are linked to cases of domestic violence. Robbery is the next most common offense, with 11,587 active warrants, followed by physical assault (5,951 warrants), sexual assault (4,018), cybercrime (2,761), and homicide (2,548). Of the 2,548 active homicide warrants, law enforcement officials note that 1,367 of the targeted suspects lack official government identity records, while 1,181 have fully documented identity cards and publicly available photographs listed in the database.
Following the latest round of weekend surrenders, the National Police has reiterated its original call for all remaining wanted individuals to use available official channels to turn themselves in voluntarily, and take responsibility for the alleged offenses listed in their active warrants.