He used false buyers to buy weapons. Dominican authorities say they were going to Haiti
A 51-year-old Cuban national accused of using false buyers to purchase weapons intended for Haiti is in federal custody in South Florida after being arrested in the Dominican Republic.
Elieser Sori Rodríguez was extradited to Miami on Friday after a grand jury in Fort Pierce indicted him on charges related to international arms trafficking and to directing others to purchase firearms on his behalf by having them lie on federal forms about whom the weapons were intended for.
Rodríguez, who is represented by the Federal Public Defender’s Office, has an arraignment and detention hearing on Wednesday in Fort Pierce federal court. Prosecutors are seeking detention before trial, arguing he is a risk of flight and danger to the community.
According to an indictment, between November 2021 and August 2022 Rodriguez conspired with individuals in several Florida counties to purchase firearms on his behalf. The buyers made false statements on forms saying they were purchasing the weapons for themselves at several federally licensed firearms dealers in Martin, Port Saint Lucie, Palm Beach and Broward counties. In Broward, a known co-conspirator purchased four Taurus G3 firearms on or about Nov. 25, 2021, the indictment said.
But after the buyers purchased the weapons, they resold them to Rodríguez, the indictment said. This is known as “straw-gun buying,” a common practice in South Florida that fuels violent crime and unlawful weapons exports.
Rodríguez, after acquiring the weapons, then “fraudulently and knowingly” exported them from the United States to the Dominican Republic, where according to authorities there they were labeled as “household items” in a shipping container. Dominican authorities announced Rodríguez’s arrest on Friday. He was apprehended, they said, on a street in the province of Montecristi during a joint operation carried out by agents from several agencies.
According to a Dominican government statement, Rodríguez is linked to the seizure of an arsenal of weapons in December 2021 by customs inspectors and other state intelligence agencies through inspections at the Puerto de Haina Oriental. In total, 33 firearms were seized, including rifles, pistols, shotguns, along with 350 units of ammunition and 56 magazines, 250 cartridges for pistols, 100 for 12 millimeter shotguns, 35 magazines for pistols and 21 for rifles.
“The investigation into this case has grown deeper because according to intelligence reports, the destination of the weapons used in this port interdiction operation were to be taken to the neighboring country of Haiti,” the National Direction for the Control of Drugs said in the statement.
Rodríguez’s arrest and subsequent deportation is the latest example of how weapons are pouring into Haiti, sometimes directly from Florida ports and other times by way of the Dominican Republic. Both Haitian and Dominican authorities in recent months have made arrests of individuals either attempting to cross into Haiti, or doing so carrying weapons.
A video shared by Dominican authorities showed Rodríguez being led onto a commercial flight at the international airport in Santo Domingo and being deported to the United States.
Miami Herald reporter Jay Weaver contributed to this story.
