Santo Domingo.- The National Police said on Wednesday that in the last few months 20 people, including two minors and one Haitian national, have been sent to justice after being charged with stealing metal from bridges and highways across the country. A further nine are being pursued on suspicion of engaging in similar criminal activities.

A press release from the National Police Public Relations Department provided more details, saying that the accused allegedly stole wires, cables, bars, grilles, tubes and road signs from several highways.

It also named all the accused except for the two minors, whose names were withheld for legal reasons, as Juan Dicent Reynoso, 36; Sixto Heredia, 50; Ramón Agustín de Jesús Manzueta, 50; Antonio de la Cruz Paula, 35; Haitian national Pupy Inael, 32; Leibin Antonio Encarnación, 28; Oliver Hernández López, 37; Angel Corcino Quiñones, 49; Omar Francisco de la Cruz Castillo, 23; Nelson Báez Valdez, 47; Félix Montero Montero, 27; Jonson Corniel Jiménez, 40; Eladio Mercedes, 53; Rafael Batista Francisco (Bobolita), 23; Roberto García Pemberton, 22; Ramón Ortega Reyes (Ramoncito) and Edison Batista Francisco.

One man, Lenny Amauris García Pérez, 30, was killed in an alleged exchange of gunfire with police agents.

The cases mentioned by the police include an incident involving Dicent Reynoso, Sixto Heredia, de Jesús Manzueta and de la Cruz Paula, who were arrested in the village of Arenoso in Cevicos municipality, Cotuí, after being caught removing metal objects from the construction of the bridge over the river Payabo on the border with the province of Monte Plata. The four men are from the municipality of Yamasá in Monte Plata.