According to the source, this is the second stage of Operation Fisher, last December, the hardest blow dealt to organized crime in 2021, when they dismantled a cell associated with the Clan del Golfo, from Colombia.
Justice was in charge of unmasking the financial tentacles of the criminal organization, which seized some 10 million dollars and numerous assets and homes.
Among the newly arrested there are four public employees and two foreign businessmen who collaborated with the purchase of goods in cash to introduce illegal money into the financial system of the canal country, called white-collar criminals.
The Director of Judicial Investigation, Carlos Valencia, specified that this new group joins the first 51 apprehended, identified as the operational logistics arm of the group that supported drug trafficking, contract killing and storage tasks.
Among the detainees is a brother of the gang leader, Jorge Luis General, a police source told the newspaper La Estrella de Panamá.
According to Valencia, all the assets were acquired during the Covid-19 pandemic and registered in the name of third parties or figureheads, natural or legal persons who are linked to money laundering as a result of drug trafficking.
The structure was dedicated to receiving narcotics from Colombia that entered through the Atlantic coast, where more than 40 percent of the drug from the neighboring country enters.
The Minister of Security of Panama, Juan Pino, told the press last year that this operation meant a serious blow to the gang dedicated to trafficking illicit substances from Colombia to the coasts of the Panamanian provinces of Colón and Bocas del Toro, and from there To united states.
Regarding the Clan del Golfo, Pino specified that “it had absolute control of all drug trafficking activities and routes to Central America, where they have consolidated important alliances with criminal cells in Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras.”
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