11th Suspect Arrested in Attempted Murder of David Ortiz

Authorities in the Dominican Republic have arrested the 11th suspect in the attempted murder-for-hire of David Ortiz, a retired Red Sox player. Ortiz was shot in a bar in Santo Domingo on June 9, and is currently recovering in a Boston hospital. Doctors have said he is in good condition.

David Ortiz, one of the most well-known athletes from the Dominican Republic, was shot in the lower back on June 9 while in a crowded bar in the Dominican Republic. Photo Courtesy of NBC News

The suspect, arrested on Tuesday, was identified by CNN through Dominican court documents as Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota. His role in the plot is to be discussed on Wednesday in a press conference. Officials described the assassination plot against Ortiz as “complex” and that the suspect who allegedly paid off the foiled assassins is in hiding.

Rodriguez Mota, the most recently arrested suspect in the plot, had allegedly met with another suspect, Gabriel Alexander Perez Vizcaíno. The two men discussed the plan to shoot Ortiz one week before the incident. Perez Vizcaíno acted as the messenger for Rodriguez Mota and Jose Eduardo Ciprian, another suspect who allegedly helped plan the assassination while serving time in a Dominican prison. The suspects had been offered money to kill Ortiz, and Ciprián and fellow inmate Carlos Alvarez offered the assassins a $7,800 payment in return for shooting Ortiz.

Police believe that on the day of the attempted murder, Ciprián texted a photo of Ortiz to Perez Vizcaíno, who is also known as “El Hueso” or “The Bone,” from his prison cell. Perez Vizcaíno then organized a meeting with a “criminal group” at a gas station to show them the man they were to “liquidate,” according to the indictment.

According to David Ortiz’s attorney, Perez Vizcaíno has been given a year of pre-trial detention though it remains unclear why Rodriguez Mota would want Ortiz dead or why he would pay to put a hit on him, or if he was acting on behalf of someone else.

The 11 suspects currently facing charges come from lower class neighborhoods and are likely working as henchmen for a mastermind yet to be identified by police. At a hearing in the Dominican Republic on Friday, a judge ordered nine of the eleven suspects to remain in jail for one year as they away trial.