Legal system!

Sorry for your loss, but happy to see that no harm came to you or your wife.  I don't know if there is much that you could do to ensure the perps will do jail time or any time at all for that matter. The judicial system is D.R. is partly based on a who knows who sort of thing. If you know the right people or have the financial means to pay your way out of an incident, you will fair just fine.  The best you can do is secure your property with an alarm system, cameras, or dogs in order to deter future incidents. Dominican jails are overcrowded as is, which is probably another reason why perps do not serve complete sentences.  If you are looking for the law to be on your side as a foreigner, you might have some level of success depending on how deep your pockets are, other than that you are pretty much on your own. One of the simple realities of the country. Hope you were able to recover all that was lost and keep your eyes and ears open. Let me add, it is not uncommon to have repeat offenders walking the street with a rap sheet a mile long, just one of the many idiosyncracities of D.R. Be safe & thanks for sharing your experience.

It is  sad that we only hear from the small percentage who have been victimized.  I guess that the silent are hoping that the finger of fate won't know that they exist. Ho- hum. that is the way of man in today's world. Glad you & the others are OK.  There are no rose colored glasses in life, but Maui Jim's do exist.  Sit back & have another glass of wine.

They used to hang hoss thieves & rustlers, but not any more. That 20,000 sounds like a scam to me. PM me for an influential contact in Cabrera. They may be of help to you.  Good luck with this. English speaking folks.