HomeNewsRaids Reveal Gaitanistas' Grasp Reaches Panama
NEWS

Raids Reveal Gaitanistas' Grasp Reaches Panama

COLOMBIA / 6 DEC 2021 BY LARA LOAIZA EN

A series of arrests have revealed that a powerful Colombian trafficking group has a strong foothold in Panama, where corrupt officials and security forces have aided in the group's operations.

Since December 1, 56 people have been arrested as part of Operation Fisher in Panama, which authorities say dismantled criminal operations in the country linked to the Gaitanistas, also known as the Gulf Clan, Urabeños, and Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia – AGC). Nine officials were arrested, including five police officers, two Panama Canal Authority functionaries, one municipal employee and one member of the Education Ministry.

According to a report from the Attorney General's Office, the investigation began in 2020 after a drug trafficking group, known as Humildad y Pureza (Humility and Purity - HP) and made up of Colombians and Panamanians, were found moving large quantities of drugs across the border.

Members of this group received shipments of cocaine in the Pacific province of Colón and Panama City. The AGC sent the drugs by go-fast boats from Colombia.

The HP gang began as a group focused on robberies between 2016 and 2017 before establishing a link as partners to the AGC.

SEE ALSO: The Urabeños After Otoniel - What Becomes of Colombia's Largest Criminal Threat?

Panamanian authorities stated that the HP gang's two leaders, Carlos Roberto Aguilar Becerra, alias "Robert," and Franklin Ariel Acevedo, alias "Franklito," were not arrested and have offered a reward of $70,000 for information leading to their capture.

Robert's brother was arrested on December 4, and a luxury beach property belonging to the gang was seized.

InSight Crime Analysis

The AGC control much of the cross-border criminal economies linking Colombia to Panama, including maritime drug trafficking and human smuggling across the Darién Gap.

The Colombian region of Urabá - located on the Panamanian border - is where the AGC were founded and got their name. Therefore, it is no surprise that its criminal links included well-established partners in Panama, including corrupt police and government officials.

SEE ALSO: Profile of Urabeños - Gulf Clan

Furthermore, while the AGC directly control areas of coca production and cocaine trafficking in Colombia, it has also spread its influence through a complex franchise system by recruiting groups to work in its name. This scheme appears to have been replicated in Panama.

According to Panamanian authorities, the HP was hired to guarantee the transport of AGC's cocaine through Panama.

This is not the first time this year that the AGC have made waves outside Colombia. The group has also attempted to establish a foothold in Venezuela.

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

COLOMBIA / 8 JUN 2022

New details have emerged about the assassination of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, including that the hit was methodically planned in…

COLOMBIA / 23 MAY 2022

A reconfiguration of the groups that control micro-trafficking in Colombia’s capital city is responsible for the series of macabre homicides…

COLOMBIA / 14 JUL 2022

A well-known Colombian fashion designer who sold leather handbags to celebrities will be extradited from Colombia to the United States to…

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…