Santo Domingo.– Elena Tonton Simeon, of Haitian origin, has the most drug arrests on
record in the Dominican Republic yet she has not seen a lot of prison
time thanks to her pregnancies and breastfeeding practices, the online paper El Caribe reported.
It is the Dominican Penal Code, Clause 234 that has enabled Simeon, 28, to
stay out of jail despite having been arrested multiple times for drug trafficking. Her August 22nd arrest for having 48 viles of crack cocaine and 23 parcels of marijuana was her 19th arrest.
According to the report, this time she was released on the grounds she was breastfeeding her
six-month old baby. Records indicate she has been set free four or more
other times for either being pregnant or breastfeeding.
In spite of
pleas by prosecutors that Simon never returns to court dates after
giving birth, the judge said his hands were tied due to Clause 234 that
does not allow for a pregnant or lactating women to be imprisoned in the
Dominican Republic.
Written by: zooma, 27 Aug 2011 6:49 AM
From: United States
The law suggest the government does not want the the responsibility and the expense of maintaining a criminal and her child within prison walls. Well. one thinks it is about time this loophole should be closed. This criminal, Elena Tonton Simeon, has been using it to avoid prison time. Her actions and the media reports she is receiving is going to set in motion copycat responses from other criminals as a way to avoid jail. The government has to weigh in to protect the common welfare of the public vs the dictates of the present law. It is about time the gov't removes the loophole and get these criminals off the streets where their criminal actions endanger the public. They can nurse the babies in jail and it will make them better behaved prisoners.
Written by: generoso, 27 Aug 2011 8:16 AM
From: United States, Quisqueya
Immediate deportation is required, with her offspring.
The DR can not afford to be always Mr.Nice guy, basta ya!
Written by: pelaut, 27 Aug 2011 8:20 AM
From: United States
And the yankees should do the same with Mexicans?
Written by: generoso, 27 Aug 2011 8:59 AM
From: United States, Quisqueya
pelaut
You are off topic, birdbrain.
And Btw the answer is yes, all criminals should be deported immediately to their nation of origin. That is of course, after they have paid their debts to society.
Written by: Eriliza, 27 Aug 2011 9:24 AM
From: United States, Boston, MA
The title of this article is misleading. She is of Haitian origin, not Dominican.
Written by: xwill7, 27 Aug 2011 11:47 AM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
These people are bringing down society
From: United States
Change the law to allow her entire family serve the sentence with her then deport them all with a life time banishment. Either get laws that deter crime or disband the police force. Reading 19 prior arrests and 0 jail time shows lax law enforcement
Written by: Lopez31, 27 Aug 2011 1:36 PM
From: United States
send her back to eat mud cakes in Haiti........
From: United States, words of wisdom from the nutcracker
lets deport this slimy , braindead mud cookie eating , ghetto rat back to haiti along with her criminal children.
From: United States
go easy, hellborn. take an extra valium today.
Written by: kennyB, 27 Aug 2011 3:24 PM
From: United States
Where's Jim Harrington and pungent smell when you need 'em?
From: Iran, DirectorioDominicano.com
Not only does she not come back to the courts, we don't even deport this woman for numerous arrests? Que Diablos es lo que se esta convirtiendo mi pais!? una banana podria?
I may just start a grass roots (Facebook) movement to have something in the books that has criminals deported to their native lands, irrespective of legal paper work.
Lo de esta mujer es un descaro!
Written by: Atabey, 27 Aug 2011 4:54 PM
From: United States, NYC
PATCHUKO,
First, drugs have been known to enter NOT ONLY the DR but also Haiti. The border crossings aren't just for human trafficking; many other "goods" cross the border for exchange!
Second, while it's true that the majority of the drug business in DR is dominated by Dominicans and other Latinos, the vast population of illegal Haitians in DR provide a cheap labor force to practice the trade. Human nature being what it is, I serious doubt that Haitians haven't set-up some forms of organized delivery services, too.
Third, the DR needs to reform-or better yet, APPLY- its deportation laws and use them forthwith.
DR has a growing drug using population and deporting illegal drug runners is a small but important step in the right direction.
From: Turks and Caicos Islands
take it easy people we don't know if the woman is Haitian by birth or descent. Lets not jump to conclusions without proper facts. I am assuming she might be a citizen, hence the reason she was not deported.
Written by: Grosero, 28 Aug 2011 12:07 AM
From: United States
there is a way to "FIX" the problem you know?
Written by: RoyStone, 28 Aug 2011 5:33 AM
From: Australia
What a fine mother and role-model she will make for her children
... not!
There is a shortage of babies available for adoptive parents that have passed very stringent tests. Give her babies a good chance in life with real parents then keep this scum-bag in jail and sterilize her before she is released.
Written by: Atabey, 28 Aug 2011 5:37 PM
From: United States, NYC
Anyone not versed in the dealings of the drug business had better read before commenting.
Sprawling Haitian Drug Ring Dismantled and Stripped of Assets
PRESS RELEASE
23 octobre 2002
SPRAWLING HAITIAN DRUG RING DISMANTLED AND STRIPPED OF ASSETS — LEADER CHARGED UNDER KINGPIN STATUTE — 19 DEFENDANTS CHARGED — AUTOMOBILE DEALERSHIP, RESIDENCES AND LUXURY CARS SEIZED
http://www.haiti-info.com/?Sprawling-Haitian-Drug-RingAnd with all the recent and current chaos, things aren't too different in Hispaniola.
The Defendants (name, DOB, residence) MARCEL LIONEL SEJOUR 2/13/73 Uniondale, NY
ENOUSE PIERRE 8/4/49 Uniondale, NY
RICARDO FRANCOIS 9/7/70 Hempstead, NY
DWAYNE WALKER 9/27/77 Elmont, NY
GENE SEYMOUR 6/17/67 Elmont, NY
JEUNE BENOIT 8/19/72 Nassau County
SHAHRAM ZARNIGHIAN 6/2/57 Old Brookville, NY
ERWIN FRANCOIS 5/2/75 Freeport, NY
NATHANIEL HAYNES 1/28/67 Rosedale, NY
SHAWN HAYNES 4/25/69 Queens, NY
HANS TERNIER 8/6/71 Springfield Gardens
Written by: Atabey, 28 Aug 2011 5:38 PM
From: United States, NYC
JULIAN ROBINSON 9/25/81 Hempstead, NY
DOMINIC FRANCOIS 10/29/69 Rosedale, NY
PIERRE LIEZARD 6/29/74 Brooklyn, NY
ALVIN KENNEDY a/k/a "Robert Blair" 4/4/68 Hackensack, NJ
ANDRE OATES 12/11/68 in federal custody
JOSEPH BAPTISTE 4/14/76 Florida
JEAN BOURSIQUOT 11/15/70 Florida
Written by: Atabey, 28 Aug 2011 5:41 PM
From: United States, NYC
Traffickers exploit Haiti's weakness
Drug-running has soared in the country, made vulnerable by poverty, isolation and police corruption.
December 23, 2007|Carol J. Williams and Chris Kraul | Times Staff Writers
Three beefy men wearing wraparound sunglasses and gold chains leaned against their SUV at this remote border crossing with the Dominican Republic. As one of them muttered into a walkie-talkie, four Haitian policemen pulled up looking like they meant business.
The SUV's back hatch was opened. The cops eyeballed its load of opaque-plastic-wrapped bundles. One officer picked up a package the size of a bread loaf, appraising its weight with his forearm.
Then the police and the gold-bedecked trio knocked fists in solidarity, traded vehicles and drove off toward the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. And thus ended the drug bust that wasn't.
Written by: Atabey, 28 Aug 2011 5:42 PM
From: United States, NYC
Endemic police corruption in Haiti is just one reason drug-running through Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, has more than doubled over the last two years. It accounts for more than 10% of illegal substances reaching the United States and an even larger share of the volume destined for Europe, U.S. and international agents say.
With counter-narcotics operations choking off traditional routes from Colombia and Mexico, smugglers are finding unfettered paths in lawless Haiti, where poverty, isolation and inept law enforcement combine to provide traffickers a new path of least resistance.
"Why are they bringing it here? Because this is the weakest point in the region," said Fred Blaise, a Haitian-born Florida police officer serving in Haiti with the United Nations Stabilization Mission.
"Haiti doesn't have helicopters. It doesn't have planes. It doesn't have radar to even know what's coming and going."
Written by: Atabey, 28 Aug 2011 5:43 PM
From: United States, NYC
Little enforcement
A fledgling coast guard has been restored after a four-year hiatus that followed the flight into exile of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the chaos that ensued. But the force has few officers and no speedboats. The 1,500-mile coastline is wide open to smugglers' so-called go-fast boats and airdrops.
"It takes only eight hours for speedboats coming from Colombia and Venezuela to get to Jacmel," Haiti's police commissioner, Mario Andresol, said of the southern port town of dilapidated gingerbread houses. "Once the drugs get to Haiti, they can be loaded onto vehicles and sent to Port-au-Prince, then north for the trip to the United States."
Haiti has no army or border guard to patrol the 225-mile frontier with the Dominican Republic. At best, a couple of police officers are sometimes on hand at the four legal crossings.
Written by: Atabey, 28 Aug 2011 5:46 PM
From: United States, NYC
From Malpasse, contraband can be dispatched across the enormous saltwater Lake Azuei in fishermen's crude, black-sailed sloops, in all-terrain vehicles that speed over denuded mountainsides into gang-ruled central and northern cities, or loaded into dump trucks at a roadside quarry that is abandoned but for the transactions that traffickers make little attempt to hide.
Much of Colombia's cocaine now comes to the southern coast of Hispaniola via Venezuela. Last year, then-U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said the volume flowing through Venezuela had quintupled since 2001 to as much as 250 tons a year. That's a quarter to half of Colombia's production.
Haitian farmers & fishermen in coastal villages can be induced with a few dollars to store drugs, guard makeshift warehouses or cart the contraband to the next stop on the route, spawning local economies that are increasingly dependent on the drug trade, the police commissioner said.
Narco-trafficking enterprises are entrenched
From: United States
This is some f-king Bull sh!t if I ever did hear any. Only in the DR.
From: United States, jackson heights ny
Her boyfriend has never been arrested,keep him in a cell too.
From: Dominican Republic, NEVER FORGOTTEN, NEVER FORSAKEN!
Kiskeyaman, get a job don't send your girlfriend to work. Lol.
From: Haiti
the idiot of the site
send her back to eat mud cakes in Haiti........?
Are you crazy to put a sentence like that?
She is DOMINICAN, she has origin of haiti, like a lot of among you!
a lot of among you have the origin of spanish people!
she is DOMINICAN, it's the duty of DR to judge this woman!
SILENT
CLOSE YOUR MOUTH, it's sad for you, to send your woman make the job of prostitution!
From: Haiti
HELL BORN
'gets deport this slimy , braindead mud cookie eating , ghetto rat back to haiti along with her criminal children.'
I's you this slimy, you are a m*ther f*cker.
It's you the criminal.
what does the baby made ??you? for that you treat him of criminal?
you are a venom, your heart is infected, and i am sure your mouth is more stinking than the sh*t!
shame to all people who judge this woman because she is haitian of origin!
you are off topic bunch of crap!
From: United States
To ATABEY...the lastime I. Check it took 4 to 5 hours in haiti and in D R it s like. Dominoes pizza 30 min or less. To get cocaine. Can you explain ...acording to your comment. Haiti should have a faster service lol
From: United States, jackson heights ny
ANDUJAR ,they make you wait for snow white that long in haiti
From: United States
I did not say it was me. .... that s what I heard mr D E A ..lol ..
From: Haiti
ATABEY YOUR DATA FROM 2002, those informations are exceeded
IF YOU WANT I CAN FIND THose same informations ABOUT A LOT OF DOMINICANS WHO DANCE WITH THE DRUG IN USA, PUERTO RICO, everywhere!
Your problem of drug is your responsability.
A LOT dealer of DRUG OF DOMINICANS WORK WITH THE DEALER LATINO PEOPLE
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The law suggest the government does not want the the responsibility and the expense of maintaining a criminal and her child within prison walls. Well. one thinks it is about time this loophole should be closed. This criminal, Elena Tonton Simeon, has been using it to avoid prison time. Her actions and the media reports she is receiving is going to set in motion copycat responses from other criminals as a way to avoid jail. The government has to weigh in to protect the common welfare of the public vs the dictates of the present law. It is about time the gov't removes the loophole and get these criminals off the streets where their criminal actions endanger the public. They can nurse the babies in jail and it will make them better behaved prisoners.
The DR can not afford to be always Mr.Nice guy, basta ya!
You are off topic, birdbrain.
And Btw the answer is yes, all criminals should be deported immediately to their nation of origin. That is of course, after they have paid their debts to society.
Where's Jim Harrington and pungent smell when you need 'em?
Not only does she not come back to the courts, we don't even deport this woman for numerous arrests? Que Diablos es lo que se esta convirtiendo mi pais!? una banana podria?
I may just start a grass roots (Facebook) movement to have something in the books that has criminals deported to their native lands, irrespective of legal paper work.
Lo de esta mujer es un descaro!
First, drugs have been known to enter NOT ONLY the DR but also Haiti. The border crossings aren't just for human trafficking; many other "goods" cross the border for exchange!
Second, while it's true that the majority of the drug business in DR is dominated by Dominicans and other Latinos, the vast population of illegal Haitians in DR provide a cheap labor force to practice the trade. Human nature being what it is, I serious doubt that Haitians haven't set-up some forms of organized delivery services, too.
Third, the DR needs to reform-or better yet, APPLY- its deportation laws and use them forthwith.
DR has a growing drug using population and deporting illegal drug runners is a small but important step in the right direction.
... not!
There is a shortage of babies available for adoptive parents that have passed very stringent tests. Give her babies a good chance in life with real parents then keep this scum-bag in jail and sterilize her before she is released.
Sprawling Haitian Drug Ring Dismantled and Stripped of Assets
PRESS RELEASE
23 octobre 2002
SPRAWLING HAITIAN DRUG RING DISMANTLED AND STRIPPED OF ASSETS — LEADER CHARGED UNDER KINGPIN STATUTE — 19 DEFENDANTS CHARGED — AUTOMOBILE DEALERSHIP, RESIDENCES AND LUXURY CARS SEIZED
http://www.haiti-info.com/?Sprawling-Haitian-Drug-Ring
And with all the recent and current chaos, things aren't too different in Hispaniola.
The Defendants (name, DOB, residence) MARCEL LIONEL SEJOUR 2/13/73 Uniondale, NY
ENOUSE PIERRE 8/4/49 Uniondale, NY
RICARDO FRANCOIS 9/7/70 Hempstead, NY
DWAYNE WALKER 9/27/77 Elmont, NY
GENE SEYMOUR 6/17/67 Elmont, NY
JEUNE BENOIT 8/19/72 Nassau County
SHAHRAM ZARNIGHIAN 6/2/57 Old Brookville, NY
ERWIN FRANCOIS 5/2/75 Freeport, NY
NATHANIEL HAYNES 1/28/67 Rosedale, NY
SHAWN HAYNES 4/25/69 Queens, NY
HANS TERNIER 8/6/71 Springfield Gardens
JULIAN ROBINSON 9/25/81 Hempstead, NY
DOMINIC FRANCOIS 10/29/69 Rosedale, NY
PIERRE LIEZARD 6/29/74 Brooklyn, NY
ALVIN KENNEDY a/k/a "Robert Blair" 4/4/68 Hackensack, NJ
ANDRE OATES 12/11/68 in federal custody
JOSEPH BAPTISTE 4/14/76 Florida
JEAN BOURSIQUOT 11/15/70 Florida
Drug-running has soared in the country, made vulnerable by poverty, isolation and police corruption.
December 23, 2007|Carol J. Williams and Chris Kraul | Times Staff Writers
Three beefy men wearing wraparound sunglasses and gold chains leaned against their SUV at this remote border crossing with the Dominican Republic. As one of them muttered into a walkie-talkie, four Haitian policemen pulled up looking like they meant business.
The SUV's back hatch was opened. The cops eyeballed its load of opaque-plastic-wrapped bundles. One officer picked up a package the size of a bread loaf, appraising its weight with his forearm.
Then the police and the gold-bedecked trio knocked fists in solidarity, traded vehicles and drove off toward the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. And thus ended the drug bust that wasn't.
Endemic police corruption in Haiti is just one reason drug-running through Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, has more than doubled over the last two years. It accounts for more than 10% of illegal substances reaching the United States and an even larger share of the volume destined for Europe, U.S. and international agents say.
With counter-narcotics operations choking off traditional routes from Colombia and Mexico, smugglers are finding unfettered paths in lawless Haiti, where poverty, isolation and inept law enforcement combine to provide traffickers a new path of least resistance.
"Why are they bringing it here? Because this is the weakest point in the region," said Fred Blaise, a Haitian-born Florida police officer serving in Haiti with the United Nations Stabilization Mission.
"Haiti doesn't have helicopters. It doesn't have planes. It doesn't have radar to even know what's coming and going."
A fledgling coast guard has been restored after a four-year hiatus that followed the flight into exile of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the chaos that ensued. But the force has few officers and no speedboats. The 1,500-mile coastline is wide open to smugglers' so-called go-fast boats and airdrops.
"It takes only eight hours for speedboats coming from Colombia and Venezuela to get to Jacmel," Haiti's police commissioner, Mario Andresol, said of the southern port town of dilapidated gingerbread houses. "Once the drugs get to Haiti, they can be loaded onto vehicles and sent to Port-au-Prince, then north for the trip to the United States."
Haiti has no army or border guard to patrol the 225-mile frontier with the Dominican Republic. At best, a couple of police officers are sometimes on hand at the four legal crossings.
Much of Colombia's cocaine now comes to the southern coast of Hispaniola via Venezuela. Last year, then-U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said the volume flowing through Venezuela had quintupled since 2001 to as much as 250 tons a year. That's a quarter to half of Colombia's production.
Haitian farmers & fishermen in coastal villages can be induced with a few dollars to store drugs, guard makeshift warehouses or cart the contraband to the next stop on the route, spawning local economies that are increasingly dependent on the drug trade, the police commissioner said.
Narco-trafficking enterprises are entrenched
send her back to eat mud cakes in Haiti........?
Are you crazy to put a sentence like that?
She is DOMINICAN, she has origin of haiti, like a lot of among you!
a lot of among you have the origin of spanish people!
she is DOMINICAN, it's the duty of DR to judge this woman!
SILENT
CLOSE YOUR MOUTH, it's sad for you, to send your woman make the job of prostitution!
'gets deport this slimy , braindead mud cookie eating , ghetto rat back to haiti along with her criminal children.'
I's you this slimy, you are a m*ther f*cker.
It's you the criminal.
what does the baby made ??you? for that you treat him of criminal?
you are a venom, your heart is infected, and i am sure your mouth is more stinking than the sh*t!
shame to all people who judge this woman because she is haitian of origin!
you are off topic bunch of crap!
IF YOU WANT I CAN FIND THose same informations ABOUT A LOT OF DOMINICANS WHO DANCE WITH THE DRUG IN USA, PUERTO RICO, everywhere!
Your problem of drug is your responsability.
A LOT dealer of DRUG OF DOMINICANS WORK WITH THE DEALER LATINO PEOPLE