On a Friday operation coordinated across multiple regions of the Dominican Republic, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca) executed synchronized search and arrest raids at private clinics and medical laboratories, launching a long-awaited new phase of a sprawling corruption investigation tied to the Dominican National Health Insurance (SeNaSa).
Preliminary official updates and insider sources close to the ongoing investigation confirm that at least 25 medical professionals have been taken into custody during the coordinated law enforcement action. This new wave of investigative activity has been labeled by investigators as both “SeNaSa 2.0” and “Operation Cobra 2.0,” referencing the high-profile original corruption probe that first exposed the alleged criminal network more than a year prior.
One of the most high-profile arrests is that of Dr. Steven Rabassa, a fertility specialist based in the eastern city of San Pedro de Macorís. Local Dominican outlets elCaribe and CDN first confirmed Rabassa’s detention, citing law enforcement sources, but the arrest has already drawn public pushback from representatives of the Dominican medical community. Critics point out that Rabassa has not held any affiliation or collaborated with SeNaSa for roughly three years, raising questions about the basis for his detention.
As of the latest official updates, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has not released a public statement outlining the specific accusations facing Rabassa or any of the other 24 doctors arrested during Friday’s raids. Authorities have also not published a full, public roster of all individuals taken into custody, leaving many details of the operation still undisclosed.
This latest round of raids is directly tied to the wider investigation into an alleged criminal conspiracy accused of siphoning billions of Dominican pesos from SeNaSa through fraudulent billing and corrupt schemes. Prosecutors have made clear that the end goals of the expanding probe are twofold: securing criminal convictions and legal penalties for all individuals found complicit in the scheme, and recovering or confiscating all public funds that were allegedly misappropriated from state coffers.
Looking back at the roots of the investigation, the original Operation Cobra probe uncovered a web of criminal activity allegedly perpetrated by the network, including collusion between corrupt public officials, prevarication, criminal association, bribery, large-scale fraud against the Dominican state, embezzlement, document forgery, use of falsified official records, and money laundering.
The first phase of Operation Cobra resulted in formal criminal charges being filed against former SeNaSA director Santiago Marcelo F. Hazim Albainy, whom prosecutors name as the suspected mastermind of the entire criminal network. Seven other co-defendants – Gustavo Enrique Messina Cruz, Francisco Iván Minaya Pérez, Germán Rafael Robles Quiñones, Rafael Luis Martínez Hazim, Ada Ledesma Ubiera and Ramón Alan Speakler Mateo – were also charged alongside the former director. As recently as August 5, the Seventh Court of Instruction of the National District reaffirmed the pretrial detention orders for Hazim Albainy and all other co-defendants currently in custody, rejecting multiple defense appeals for release.
Friday’s coordinated raids represent the most significant new development in the SeNaSa corruption case since the original charges were filed, marking a major expansion of the investigation beyond the initial group of senior public officials and network insiders. With investigators still consolidating evidence and processing the arrests, full details of the charges and scope of the new phase of the probe are expected to be released in the coming days.