Authorities in the Dominican Republic say they have arrested the mastermind behind the shooting of former Red Sox star David Ortiz, The Boston Globe reported Friday.
The person alleged to be behind the June 9 shooting is identified as Victor Hugo Gomez Vasquez, who was arrested in Santo Domingo. He also was being pursued by U.S. authorities for his alleged involvement in a drug trafficking ring, per the report.
According to Dominican law, authorities have 48 hours before they must bring him before a judge.
Gomez Vasquez was identified June 19 as the alleged mastermind, The Globe reported. At that time they said the target of the alleged hit was Gomez Vasquez's cousin Sixto David Fernandez, who Gomez Vasquez targeted in the belief that Fernandez had informed on him to Dominican authorities in 2011. Fernandez has said he was sitting across from Ortiz when Ortiz was shot in a nightclub on the night of June 9.
Ortiz, 43, continues to recover from his injuries in a Boston hospital, having been moved out of the intensive care unit.
Earlier this month, two men — one identified by authorities and the other who appeared in court — also were linked to the attempted murder of the former MLB slugger that authorities have maintained was a case of mistaken identity, though there has been rampant speculation about that in the Dominican Republic.
Authorities said they believe Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota paid the hitmen, and Gabriel Alexander Perez Vizcaino, nicknamed "Bone," is accused of being the liaison between the Mota and the hitmen, according to court documents from his closed hearing obtained by The AP.
The former remains a fugitive and the latter was in prison in an unrelated case, according to the report.
Gomez Vasquez is one of some dozen individuals who are in custody and facing charges in connection with the botched murder attempt, including at least two who remain at-large.
He maintains that he is innocent as does his family.
"They have used him as (a scapegoat) to protect someone that is high up politically," one family member told ABC 13 in Houston.
Ortiz, a key figure in three Red Sox world championships, lives in Boston but visits his native Dominican Republic several times a year.
He remains in at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was transferred after doctors in the Dominican Republic removed his gallbladder and part of his intestines immediately after he was shot.
