SANTIAGO.- A heated dispute between two Police colonels who head the Homicide and Criminal Investigations departments unleashed when one of them allegedly tried to hide the fugitive lieutenant Fernando de los Santos “La Soga” (the Rope) forced the Police Chief’s hurried visit to the regional Command Thursday.

The incident even led to a walkout by agents.

Despite the scandal, Police chief Jose Polanco declined comment at the end of the “raging and aggressive” meeting with Criminal Investigations director Gabriel Santos, and of the Homicide division Roberto Salcedo.

According to a source cited by hoy.com.do, the dispute between the two senior officers began when Santos refused transfer to Bonao, ordered after it was learned that “La Soga” was contracted by two San Francisco (central) “business leaders” to murder several people.

Instead of accepting his transfer, the Criminal Investigations chief allegedly admonished the agents assigned to Homicides.

Salcedo went to Police Headquarters in Santo Domingo where he submitted his resignation, a decision that spurred the agents under his command to turn in their weapons and declare themselves on strike.

When Salcedo discovered that “La Soga” offered his services to the two San Francisco men to murder two people in Santiago, he began the probe jointly with the Justice Ministry, which enraged Santos.

Polanco has asked La Soga and his relatives to surrender peacefully, to face charges of killing Elvis Sebastián Valerio and Luis Roberto Torres, hired by Juan Silverio Ureña and Bonel de Jesus Lanfranco, who is in custody.

The source also affirms that two helicopters yesterday began to search the mountainous zone of San Jose de las Matas, Monción, Santiago Rodriguez and Mao, after the “armed and extremely dangerous” La Soga.