HomeNewsBriefPanama Drug Seizures Up As Drug Routes Shift
BRIEF

Panama Drug Seizures Up As Drug Routes Shift

INFOGRAPHICS / 26 NOV 2013 BY CHARLES PARKINSON EN

Panama has registered a significant increase in drug seizures this year compared to 2012, underling the country's growing importance to drug traffickers as the region's cocaine routes continue to shift.

So far this year, Panamanian authorities have seized over 40 tons of drugs -- the majority cocaine -- compared to 35 tons last year, reported La Estrella. The figures represent an almost 15 percent increase compared to 2012, with more than a month of the year left to go.

The numbers also mark a rebound in drug seizures from 2011, when 39 tons were recovered, although are not yet close to the record 54 tons recovered in 2009.

According to La Estrella, 319 tons of drugs have been recovered in the past 13 years, with almost 36 percent of seizures occurring in the past three years.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Panama

The figures underscore a shift in drug trafficking patterns during that time period, as highlighted in an investigation by La Estrella, with direct shipments to Mexico dropping sharply in favor of routes through Central America and the Caribbean.

As La Estrella points out, the shift has been accompanied by a heavier presence in Panama of foreign criminal organizations, including Mexican cartels and Colombian groups known as BACRIM (from the Spanish abbreviation for "Criminal Bands").

panamamap

InSight Crime Analysis

Panama, sitting at a strategic exit point for South American cocaine, has long hosted transnational organized crime, with lax visa requirements, a thriving sex tourism industry, a welcoming banking sector and a dollarized economy all making the country attractive for money laundering and lavish lifestyles. As outlined by La Estrella, the country is also home to an active contraband trade, facilitated by the Colon Free Trade Zone.

The 57th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has also long operated in the stretch of dense jungle known as the Darien Gap along border between Panama and Colombia. The strength of this presence is highlighted by the fact that one of the front's commanders is a former Panamanian policeman, and with the June discovery of Panama's first known coca plantation, which has been linked to the FARC.

However, since 2007 authorities have documented rising drug trafficking and related violence through the country, and activity from illegal groups appears to have recently accelerated and diversified. Earlier this year, Panamanian officials claimed four Mexican cartels now operate in the country.

Criminal groups dedicated to stealing drug and cash shipments have also emerged, with 40 to 50 now operating in the country, according to La Estrella, while foreign organized crime appears to have spurred the growth of domestic street gangs.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CHILE / 3 AUG 2022

Middlemen in Chile control sales of merluza, a white-fleshed fish for which there is a large appetite.

COCA / 2 JUN 2022

Rich in resources, Peru's Amazon is being plundered at an accelerated rate, losing more than 26,000 square kilometers of forest…

COSTA RICA / 27 JUL 2022

The installation of a radar tower on Costa Rica’s Cocos Island heralded a new era for curbing illegal fishing in…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…