Dominican authorities avert bloodbath akin to Waco, Texas

Santo Domingo.- The shootout with a religious sect linked to the group of Germans which attacked a police patrol during a raid of their property, with one sect member killed and three agents hurt, could’ve unleashed a massacre such was that in Waco, Texas in 1993, said Police chief Jose Polanco.

The sect had built a fortified compound to survive an alleged cataclysm they expected in December 2012, based on the Mayan prediction, and prepared it militarily to defend it in the ensuing chaos.

The group’s mix of beliefs included Buddhism, Maya culture, Sahi Baba, Christianity and extraterrestrials, information they believe is shrouded by the major world powers and the media.

The cult members lived shut off from the world in a compound of some 20 luxury homes in Sosúa, Puerto Plata. They didn’t allow people outside the organization to enter and had several run-ins with police and other authorities.

The sect called "The Academy For Future Health” (AFFH) is led by the German Peter Brunk, whose control over his followers and mind control was such that it’s now being compared with that exerted by David Koresh over his followers in 1993, when a raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas left dozens dead and catapulted him to world notoriety.

One of the German detainees revealed that the group also has a property in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Family Conflict

Five years ago one of Brunck’s sons left the sect on personal problems in Germany and revealed everything about the group, prompting an investigation there and German journalists visiting the Dominican Republic.

The reporters, unable to enter the compound, managed to fly over the area in an Air Force helicopter, but were attacked by some of the people within the complex of villas.

In December, 2006 two masked gunmen on a motorcycle shot Brunck, but survived because he was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time.