The prosecution claims that the defendants bribed drug distributors, created the Tócate foundation, with which they diverted funds and charged SeNaSa for services and medicines not supplied to patients of the Santiago Oncology Center
SANTO DOMINGO.- The investigation of the so-called "Operation Cobra", launched by the Public Prosecutor's Office, resulted in 28 new arrests this Friday, whom judicial authorities identify as responsible for embezzling billions of pesos from the Dominican State, through the National Health Insurance (SeNaSa).
The former director of the institution, Santiago Marcelo F. Hazim Albainy, has been in prison since December 2025 in connection with the case. He is accused of leading the fraud that has affected the health insurance of the Dominican people. Also imprisoned are co-defendants Gustavo Enrique Messina Cruz, Francisco Iván Minaya Pérez, Germán Rafael Robles Quiñones, Rafael Luis Martínez Hazim, and Ramón Alan Speakler Mateo.
The Public Prosecutor's Office states in the official information that it has been able to gather evidence of large-scale bribery, falsification of financial statements, and special programs without legal basis, used to divert funds through fraudulent maneuvers.
Operation Cobra 2.0
Yesterday, Friday, September 18, the prosecuting body launched Operation Cobra 2.0-A with the aim of continuing to prosecute those involved in the case. This time, the charges are related to the provision of healthcare services.
The statement specifies that the teams of prosecutors have carried out 37 raids in the National District, Santo Domingo province, Santiago, Cotuí and La Vega.
Wilson Camacho, Director General of Prosecution at the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), stated that at least 28 people were arrested as part of the case that began in its first stage with Operation Cobra to dismantle an administrative corruption structure that took advantage of SeNaSa to steal public funds to the detriment of all its members.
An operation involving 45 prosecutors and more than 200 police officers
Camacho explained that the operation involves teams of prosecutors from the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), under the direction of court prosecutor Mirna Ortiz, as well as other units of the Public Ministry.
The operation involves 45 prosecutors, 200 National Police officers, and 16 members of the Criminal Investigations Unit. The National Directorate of Investigation (DNI) also participated in the investigation, under the direction of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Camacho explained that the operation involves teams of prosecutors from the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), under the direction of Prosecutor Mirna Ortiz, as well as other units of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The operation includes 45 prosecutors, 200 National Police officers, and 16 members of the Criminal Investigations Unit. The National Directorate of Investigation (DNI), under the direction of the Public Prosecutor's Office, also participated in the investigation.
The Public Ministry units have seized assets, cash, vehicles, and firearms as part of the operation, which aims to prosecute doctors who, in addition to violating the Penal Code and threatening health services to vulnerable sectors, even affected their own colleagues who act in accordance with professional ethics and current laws.
The criminal process
The process of arresting those involved began in December 2025. The Public Prosecutor's Office indicates that with their actions, the defendants affected the members of SeNaSa, by defrauding that public health risk administrator (ARS) of billions of pesos.
The group is charged with collusion of officials, prevarication, criminal association, bribery, fraud against the Dominican State, embezzlement, forgery, use of false documents and money laundering.
The prosecuting body indicated that this is a systematic corruption scheme set up by the executive director of SeNaSa, in collusion with officials of that ARS and with the participation, in criminal association, of health service providers, to the detriment of the Dominican State.
Operation Onco14
As part of the lines of investigation that the process follows, the Public Ministry also launched Operation Onco14 last June, which led to the arrest of three people for being part of the structure that abused the Cibao Cancer Foundation to enrich themselves with fraudulent maneuvers that affected the Cibao Regional Cancer Institute (IORC), cancer patients and SeNaSa.
Those arrested in connection with the case were Héctor Antonio Lora Cruceta, former president of the Council of the non-profit association (ASFL) Patronato Cibaeño Contra el Cáncer and member of the board of directors of the IORC, and his wife Luisa Yasiris Guzmán, president of the Tócate RD-Casa de Acogida foundation, as well as his ex-wife Dilcia Isabel Vargas Sánchez, who divorced the defendant in 2014 and held the Vice Presidency, and, at the same time, served as internal and external auditor of the board that administers the Regional Cancer Institute of Cibao when the defendant was president of the aforementioned ASFL.
The agency specifies that they were subsequently brought before the courts in the Santiago judicial district. The case was declared complex, and Lora Cruceta and his wife Guzmán were sent to prison, while his ex-wife Vargas Sánchez is under house arrest.
The defendants and the companies Vargas Lora & Asociados (now Vargas Guzmán Accounting Center) and Fundación Tócate RD-Casa de Acogida stole the funds through various fraudulent mechanisms.
Signs
The investigation exposes criminal acts such as clinical and pharmaceutical fraud through the alteration of medical indications, use of false medical stamps, double billing to SeNaSa and incomplete delivery of medicines.
In addition, the prohibition of free donations of medicines, the sale of donated medicines, smuggling with tax exemptions, and trafficking in controlled substances.
Also included were the use of oncology rooms for cosmetic surgeries, illegitimate representation expenses and fraudulent reimbursements of travel and hotel expenses, as well as digital sabotage, theft of files and money laundering.
According to the investigation, the defendants bribed drug distributors, created the Tócate foundation, with which they diverted funds and charged SeNaSa for services and medicines not supplied to patients of the Santiago Oncology Center.
Another mechanism used to divert funds from the Board, according to the investigating body, was the self-assignment of salaries, travel allowances, and other benefits that do not correspond to the personnel working in this type of entity.
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