Fourteen corpses were found this Tuesday aboard a cayuco that was about 10 nautical miles off the coast of Río San Juan, in the north of the Dominican Republic.
The skeletal remains correspond to people from Africa, specifically from Senegal and Mauritania, according to the documentation found with the bodies, representatives of Civil Defense, the body that works on the case together with troops from various institutions, explained to the press.
In addition, a backpack was found on the boat containing 12 packages of a substance, presumably cocaine or heroin, which was seized and handed over to members of the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) for the corresponding procedures, the Navy reported in a press release.
At the moment, the bodies have not been removed pending fumigation of the bags of the corpses to avoid health risk situations and, once disinfected, they will be transferred to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif), they pointed out.
The location of the boat occurred after receiving the alert from a local fisherman, the Dominican Navy said in a statement.
The circumstances of what happened are currently being investigated, as well as the identity of the victims.
