Yet one more drive to La Romana and one more stop by the crack team of extortionists south of Higuey. I have learned to leave all my money stashed, showing only 20 pesos when the guy who cannot read, bath or dress properly...asks for my documentation. Of course, I get the story of "I am hungry"...."it's my birthday"....etc.

One guy stopped me in Otra Banda one week and Veron the next....and used the same birthday story on me. I told him at his rate of birthdays he is going to die a young man!

If they see a couple hundred pesos or more in your wallet, they expect it for their cause. Oddly enough, there job is to search for guns and drugs. Never once has anyone EVER searched my car...but every time they search my wallet.

Apparently by reading, this is supposed to be the DR's crack team of special agents. If this is the case, I can better understand why organized crime has no problem circumventing the law. Most look less than 20 years old with an education that came from the street...not the school. Two guys dressed in fatigues...combined weight of 200 lbs, looking like extras from a 1960 movie from the Congo. The shirts...well I could make one in 5 minutes with a $5.00 t-shirt transfer kit. And...I noticed...no badges or identification cards.

Next time through I think I will leave my camera rolling and record the discussion and have it released to the press...but then again, that would not be news to anyone...there has to be a way to stop these roadside bandits.

They make AMET look like they have a purpose!!!

Mike states

They make AMET look like they have a purpose!!!

that cannot be a good thing

Happened to us on the way back from PC to the north coast two weeks ago in Nagua. We just told him we had no guns and then just gave him a blank stare for a minute with out saying a word. He told us to move on.

BobK1

Around 1986 when Balaguer returned to power, after a disastrous 8 years with PRD thieves running things, the police were furnished with radar guns, and they were all over the place, starting before the airport toll gate, to Juan Dolio, then on the road to La Romana there where maybe 3 more radar traps.
Usually with one police Volskwagen who couldn't outrun a Datsun, and one big Harley Davidson, parked next to each other. But these guys were regular and experienced traffic cops, that made a lot of money.
I remember one of them coming up to the owner of a beach house in Guayacanes, and asking him if he could rent his beach house, for semana santa, which is the most expensive rent week in the year, that's how much money these guys were raking in.
Then I decided to investigate the particular MO of the police mafia. The operation was an ongoing business:
The corporal and sargents send the money "upstairs" to the zone officers in charge of the section, they in turn send it "up" to the coronel in charge of the whole area or jurisdiction, then the coronel sends it up to the number 1, guess who that is. It was an institutionalized mafia, and it was a pain in the ass for drivers to go to Punta Cana from the city.
After Leonel came into power and AMET was created, they dismissed the whole traffic cop division of the police, and fired or retired everybody in it.
But you don't have to stop in a roadblock, if you have a big newer jipeta or a Mercedes Benz or like wise fancy car, because they figure you are a big shot or government dude, and they don't want to mess with you.
Also if the driver waves at the cops with one hand while he is cruising by, and looks forward not at them, then they will wave back and let you pass.
This of course is OK if there is no traffic backed up, and the driver of the car doesn't look like an easy target gringo, with plenty of pesos.
I mostly have never stopped, when told to pull over, and the few times that I did, It was a quick and easy search, because you grease the cops beforehand with a $50 or $100 peso note anyway.
If you can't afford less than three dollars, as your donation to these poor underpaid police, then you shouldn't be driving.

I'm sorry, but I find your reply offensive to the wonderful people of the Dominican Republic. Whomever these G2 robbers were or represent that my family encountered this past week when returning to the airport in Punta Cana on the road from Santa Domingo after visiting the beautiful Samana Penninsula and it's people, hurt all the wonderful Dominican people! First of all, I find it hard to believe that a man wearing a Lacoste shirt is starving, and having a medical background, he looked very healthy. As well, since your reply, there must have been massive inflation as he was repeatedly yelling at us "BANCO, BANCO" and writing 2500 (near $70 American Dollars) while trying to intimidate us and make us think we didn't have all our rental car papers that we needed. Thankfully we didn't understand what he wanted and he finally got frustrated with us and yelled "GO," as he certainly wasn't interested in the 100 pesos in coins we had laying in our center console. And the first "check point" we encountered waived us "gringos" on, but both check stops had their own poor countrymen pulled over that they were robbing! I find this horrible that the Dominican government doesn't crack down on this literal highway robbery. We went to a NON resort to stay, took Dominican led tours, ate at Dominican restaurants, tipped well all the hard working people from Dominican Republic we encountered and put money into the Dominican people. It was the most wonderful trip my family had ever been on, but if we had encountered these bandits at the start of our trip, not the last day, we would of driven back to the airport and returned to the US, not bringing any money into the country. Now, multiply how many families that this happens to and then others that hear the rumors of bandits on the roads from friends, neighbors etc, thus prompting them to take their spendable money to a safer country, not to mention the numbers of Dominican's being robbed of their hard earned peso by their countrymen in an "official" position. Now that's hurting ALL the Dominican people! If anybody wants to "help" the Dominican people, DON'T follow this mans advice and pay them, as they are only hurting all the other wonderful Dominican majority that don't steal and intimidate with guns. (Do be aware, however, that almost everywhere has their own security guards with guns working for them and broken bottle glass placed into the tops of property walls, just as a deterrent, as at least where we were, crime was reported by the locals to be VERY low.) For anyone that I've scared from going to the Samana Penninsula, don't fear, just skip our mistake of flying into Punta Cana and then driving, fly into the new airport of El Catey at the start of the Samana Penninsula or a bit of a drive from Puerto Plata. The Samana Penninsula is the most beautiful, mountainous tropical place my eyes have ever seen. And, do not feel bad for the Dominican people, as culture shock does set in at first, but that is soon washed away when you see how happy and healthy the majority of the people are. Several of our tour guides said that they would enjoy to travel and visit another country, but would ALWAYS return home to the Dominican Republic. I think that speaks volumes! The people are wonderful, but the G2 is EVIL!

Yes, the new airport at El Catey with it's extensive international connections is turning into a great success.

S.