Six prisoners escape from Santo Domingo Prison No. 1 after breaching maximum security wall
Six inmates escaped from the Santo Domingo Prison No. 1 after drilling through a wall. Police have released their identities and are requesting information at 1800 DELITO.
Police release identities of six fugitives from Santo Domingo prison
The search for six inmates who fled the Santo Domingo Prison No. 1 (Bellavista) entered a public phase on Monday 12 October 2026, according to elcomercio.com. Authorities released judicial records and images of the fugitives to alert the public and accelerate their location.
The six individuals identified are Néstor Alfonso Guevara Moreta, Serafín Sigifredo Vera Silva, José Marcelo Cevallos Zambrano, John Moisés Chalco Zambrano, Alexis Damián Rivas Meneses and Eduardo Manuel Arica Jara. Three of them are facing proceedings or have been sentenced for rape; the other three face criminal charges for murder, robbery and possession of controlled substances, and investigations are underway into their possible links with organised crime.
They drilled through a cell wall on the second floor
Expert examination established that the inmates were in pavilion D of the maximum security section. The acting police commander in the area, Lenin Peralta, detailed that the prisoners broke through the wall of a cell located on the second floor, entered a pipe duct that runs through the structure and opened a second opening to exit through the rear of the building towards the outside.
The alert reached ECU 911 in the early hours of the morning. Agents traced the escape route to the vicinity of a nearby river. Authorities are investigating whether the fugitives used the water current to distance themselves from the prison perimeter.
Drones and armed forces participate in the operation
The search operation involves units from the National Police together with armed forces units and teams equipped with drones to monitor areas of difficult access in the surroundings of the prison.
Internal investigation detected technical anomalies in the security cameras at the facility, both in the interior corridors and in the external perimeters. These failures hampered the reconstruction of the inmates' prior movements and prevent determining with precision how long it took them to drill through the walls without being detected by control personnel.
Confidential line for reporting information
In response to the escape, authorities activated the telephone line 1800 DELITO (335486) and a digital QR code for receiving reports from citizens. Information about the whereabouts of the fugitives will be handled under strict confidentiality and with identity protection, within the rewards scheme established to facilitate their recapture.
Source: Google News DO — Santo Domingo