Tuesday afternoon, fans of MLB received a major shock when two former stars were arrested in the Dominican Republic as part of one of the largest operations against organized crime in the country. Octavio Dotel and Luis Castillo were both among more than a dozen individuals arrested during the raid due to potential ties to a crime boss known as Cรฉsar Emilio Peralta, a.k.a Cรฉsar El Abusador.
According to reporter Danny Gold, who spent a considerable amount of time in the Dominican Republic searching for the reasoning behind the shooting of Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz, the two cases are uniquely connected. Peralta is actually one figure that was repeatedly mentioned during his trip to the small island as a “high up guy” that was not being investigated for the shooting. There were countless rumors about Ortiz being in trouble with the crime boss, but they were never proven to be true.
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Interestingly enough, Gold tried multiple times to get in contact with Peralta before ultimately sending him a DM on Instagram. The top narco did respond, but wouldn’t provide any insight into whether or not he was the one that had ordered the attack on Ortiz. All he would tell Gold is that “I do not have any problems, everything has already been cleared up.”
According to multiple reports coming out of the Dominican Republic, one of the factors that tie these two cases together is the luxury tower where Cesar lived. Known as the Naco Blue Tower, also featured an apartment owned by Ortiz, and it was raided along with 15 clubs, 10 restaurants, 20 apartment buildings, and three shopping malls.
While Peralta did not confirm or deny the ties to Ortiz and the shooting, there is sizeable evidence tying him to former MLB players. In fact, the man in charge of the raid and the investigation even cited this connection while meeting with the media.
Attorney General Jean Alain Rodrรญguez said in a statement to reporters Tuesday that Peralta had been trafficking drugs to the United States and laundering money throughout his decades of crime. Additionally, Rodriguez also directly linked Castillo and Dotel to Peralta when discussing the use of MLB players to launder the money.
Considering that Castillo and Dotel were both directly mentioned by Rodriguez, it appears that the case against the pair of former MLB stars is fairly concrete. The connection to Ortiz, however, is slightly more tenuous. At this point, it’s very possible that Peralta was behind the shooting, but it may not ever be proven.
