After eight days of hearing, the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Drug-Related Crimes obtained the provisional arrest of 51 people, of the 57 who were taken to a hearing, after being apprehended in Operation Fisher and charged with the crimes of illicit association to commit a crime. aggravated, as perpetrators, and by money laundering.
The Court of Guarantees imposed house arrest for three other people and periodic notification for two. Also ordered the suspension of the position for the exercise of public functions to 7 of the people to whom the provisional arrest was applied.
The Public Ministry sustained for five consecutive hours the formulation of charges for the 57 people who were charged with illicit association to commit a crime and 22 were added the crime of money laundering.
On December 6, the Drug Prosecutor’s Office achieved a 68-month prison sentence, by means of a penalty agreement, for one of those implicated for illicit association to commit a crime.
During December 6 and 7, the Prosecutor’s Office supported the request for the precautionary measure of provisional detention based on the procedural risks of danger to the community, the complexity of the case due to the plurality of people and crimes committed, the transnational nature of the organization criminal, due to the nature of the act, the dangerousness and seriousness of the facts, the danger of flight, the inattention to the process and destruction of evidence.
This criminal organization, dismantled through Operation Fisher, carried out on December 1, after 22 months of investigation, arranged and organized the commission of different crimes, such as sending, receiving and hiding illicit substances from Colombia, passing through Central America with final destination the United States and also, the concealment of the money product of drug trafficking activities in coves. Money laundering occurred through public limited companies, acquisitions of real estate and the purchase of high-end vehicles.
The Public Ministry with this operation and its results hits a hard blow to drug trafficking with the seizure of more than $ 10 million from this criminal organization linked to the Gulf Clan, who operated mainly from the province of Colón, moving the drug through speedboats. through the Panamanian Caribbean to Bocas del Toro, also by land in vehicles with double bottom, gas cylinders, among other mechanisms to commit the crime.
The hearing of precautionary measures of seized assets will be held next Monday, December 13.
