Dominican Republic ramps up illicit trade enforcement under new Penal Code

The Dominican Republic’s newly implemented Penal Code has triggered a coordinated government push against illicit trade, prompting authorities to ramp up joint enforcement operations across the country, elnuevodiario.com.do reported. The legislative shift introduces heavier legal penalties for individuals and commercial entities caught dealing in smuggled or counterfeit goods, providing state prosecutors with expanded tools to target black-market networks.

Stricter Penalties and Expanded Legal Tools

Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso, who leads the Interinstitutional Public-Private Council for the Prevention of Illicit Trade, emphasized that Law 74-25 establishes harsher consequences for offenders. Speaking through an official statement, Reynoso pointed to additional legal mechanisms such as the Asset Forfeiture Law (No. 340-22) and Law 155-17 against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism. Because illicit trade offenses frequently serve as predicate crimes for money laundering, Reynoso warned commercial sectors of the severe legal fallout.

These are regulations that anyone involved in illicit trade needs to know and be aware of, as the Dominican Republic is not a favorable country for illicit trade.

New Berenice Reynoso

Industry, Commerce, and Mipymes Minister Yayo Sanz Lovatón, serving as the council’s secretary, urged participating state bodies to maintain steady oversight and continuous pressure against contraband operations. The council met to evaluate multi-year enforcement statistics spanning from 2020 through 2026, mapping out a significant escalation in seizures and judicial actions.

Seizures Surge to 270 Million Items in Six Years

Between 2020 and 2026, law enforcement agencies intercepted more than 270 million units of illegal merchandise. That total includes 132 million units of tobacco and related products, 135 million pharmaceutical items, 1.5 million bottles of alcohol, and 330,000 units of clerén and sexual stimulants. Authorities executed 53,086 patrols and carried out 759 raids during the same timeframe.

The pace of confiscations accelerated sharply in the first nine months of 2026, with authorities seizing more than 95 million illicit items. Pharmaceuticals drove a major portion of that total, with 67.2 million medical products intercepted between January and September 2026. This compares with roughly 56.2 million pharmaceutical products captured during the same period in 2025 and only 7.2 million in 2024.

To handle the volume, the government destroyed or incinerated 72.9 million illicit goods over the course of 2026, marking the largest annual volume of destruction on record. On the judicial front, 59 individuals faced arrest for smuggling and illicit trade this year, with 13 formally prosecuted. Meanwhile, public health records show the country has recorded zero fatalities linked to adulterated or clandestine alcoholic beverages since 2022, keeping the Dominican Republic off the observation list of the United States Special 301 Report on intellectual property.

Institutional Coordination and Specialized Training

To sustain these enforcement gains, the interinstitutional council agreed to bolster the Illicit Trade and Unfair Competition Table while establishing new operational coordination frameworks. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Mipymes will consolidate its Directorate of Illicit Trade as the technical agency responsible for monitoring active cases. Additionally, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Mipymes and the Public Ministry will collaborate to launch a specialized master’s degree focused on illicit trade and intellectual property.

The state also plans to formalize the Operational Table for Combating Illicit Trade and Unfair Competition via presidential decree to unify prevention, inspection, and prosecution efforts. Officials from the Ministry of Public Health, the General Directorate of Customs, the General Directorate of Internal Taxes, Pro Consumidor, and the Dominican Institute for Quality joined representatives from industrial, pharmaceutical, tobacco, brewing, alcohol, and fuel trade associations at the meeting to review the strategy.