50-years jail for kidnap-murder gang

Two Dominicans,  who masterminded the kidnapping and murder of five university students in La Chorrera eight years ago have been sentenced to 50 years imprisonment. Similar sentences were imposed on two of their collaborators.

The students were all from  Chinese families who received recorded appeals for ransom from their children before they were killed between 2010 and 2011.

The sentences on Alcibiades Méndez aka  “José Celular”  and Gilberto Ventura Ceballo were handed down by  The Second Superior Court on Monday, July 9, and will bring partial closure to the Chinese community  which has been protesting  stalled justice for yeara

Ventura who was 35 at the time of the murders escaped the maximum security pavilion in La Joyita penitentiary center on, December 28, 2016, and was recaptured by Interpol in Costa Rica after nine months on the run with a $50,000 price tag on his head. Cataloged as a dangerous man, he used false cedulas and passports with the identities of Fermín Antonio Taveras Ramírez and Ángel Betancourt.

In addition, Keyla Gisselle Bendibú Salazar and Mario Luis Vega were each sentenced  to  50 years as secondary accomplices to homicide and primary accomplices of the kidnapping of 3 of the 5 young people.

Kenny Bendibú Salazar and Roberto Mariscal Rodríguez were sentenced to 15 years as secondary accomplices to homicide and were acquitted of kidnapping.