Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – A targeted law enforcement operation led by the Dominican Republic’s National Police in the Bávaro-Friusa sector of La Altagracia province has resulted in the fatal shooting of two alleged top leaders of a transnational Haitian criminal network, alongside the apprehension of two additional suspected associates, according to official law enforcement disclosures. The two deceased suspects have been formally identified by police as Leroy Arson, who operated under the aliases Trenzas and Benzo, and Charli Patrick, known to local authorities as Omega or Wilkin. Per accounts from responding officers, the pair were travelling in a private vehicle when law enforcement personnel initiated a standard traffic stop to question them, at which point the two men allegedly opened fire on the officers, prompting a defensive exchange of gunfire that left both suspects fatally wounded at the scene. No officers were reported injured in the shootout. As part of the same coordinated sweep, law enforcement teams detained two more suspected affiliates of the criminal network: 40-year-old Pierre Charles Everson and 26-year-old Yaquelin Castillo. Everson was taken into custody in the Las Lagunas de Nisibón area, where police say he was caught in the act of using hydraulic tools to force entry into a local remittance office. Castillo was arrested after forensic and communications analysis by investigators confirmed she had been in regular contact with one of the two slain alleged gang leaders, with evidence linking her to operational planning for the group’s illegal activities. The National Police’s Central Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DICRIM) has tied the dismantled faction to a string of high-profile, unsolved property crimes across multiple eastern and northern Dominican provinces, including coordinated break-ins and armed robberies targeting financial institutions in La Vega and Higüey, as well as a major commercial burglary at a hardware store in Las Lagunas de Nisibón. Law enforcement units executing the operation also seized a substantial cache of evidence and alleged criminal tools from the suspects and their associated vehicles: a loaded 9mm pistol, a Hyundai Sonata sedan identified as the primary getaway vehicle used in multiple prior robberies, heavy-duty hydraulic jacks, industrial cutting implements, protective gloves, full-face balaclavas, and a range of other supplies suspected to have been deployed during the group’s burglary and theft operations. DICRIM officials confirmed that expanded investigations are still actively ongoing to trace, identify, and take into custody any remaining unapprehended members of the criminal network, as well as to map out any potential cross-border connections that may have supported the group’s illegal operations.