SANTO DOMINGO.- The Electoral Board (JCE) said it busted a "dangerous ring" which operated in several Peravia province (south) municipalities, which supplanted and forged birth certificates and identity cards for foreigners for years.

JCE Administrative Chamber magistrates Jose Angel Aquino and Francisco Feliz said the National Investigations Department (DNI) and the National Police worked jointly to aprehend the criminals, including the alleged ringleader Reynaldo Melchor Alcántara Pozo (Rey), arrested when he tried to obtain cedulas for 45 Haitian nationals.

Also in his possession were 9 Haitian passports, 45 forged delayed sworn birth declarations, whereas the old identity card carried his name, number 35785, series 5, which in fact belongs to Delfina Zapata, Navy ID card, and several checks.

The Administrative Chamber judges also said it uncovered 2,416 personal identity cards (old certificate) issued irregularly to foreigners from 1994 to 1997, after those certificates were discontinued when the new ones were introduced.

The forged IDs were issued to 442 Chinese, 331 Italians, 316 Germans, 254 Americans, 162 Spaniards, 133 Cubans, 93 Colombians, 82 Haitians and 77 Swiss, among other nationalities.

In the books where those fraudulent certificates were registered, the pages were changed and others had been discontinued.