About these figures, Aida de Selles, the Director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Panama, said it is necessary to establish a criminological policy involving all of the factions of society. She added that the numbers must be used in a scientific manner and cited the figures show the criminal flow towards the interior of the country. She also made reference to the sectors where social work is needed, such as anger management, values ​​education, education, etc..

The records provided by the Integrated Office of National Crime Statistics (SIEC) reveal there were 18 murders in Panama Metro and another 17 in the district of San Miguelito, representing more than 50% of the bloodshed. Everyone knows that Sundays are the most violent, and so far no plan has been presented to the community to reduce deaths. In January, 20 homicides were committed on Sundays, 14 on Saturdays, 7 on Tuesdays, and 6 each on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. (Mi Diario)   

The young man, who had departed from the USMA college on Tumba Muerto, was intercepted near the Kienner company on Via Transístmica at a traffic light by the two police officers on motorcycles, who simulated the arrest of the suspect for an alleged theft of drugs. A patrol car also participated in the illegal act, and later another vehicle arrived that transported the victim, and then he was kept hooded and kidnapped. The GPS in the victim's vehicle recorded the day of travel, but it could not confirm the delivery of money. The kidnappers told the victim they would charge his parents $4 million dollars ransom, because his uncle Roque Perez owed them $55 million dollars, and although they claimed to be Colombians they had no accent, as made clear in the sentence pronounced by the court.

In that case Eligio Atencio was acquitted, a corporal in the National Police, because he was ordered to participate by a superior officer. Martinez was second lieutenant at the time, and Atencio was a sergeant. The three accused at the time denied the charges against them made by the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime.

Racketeering - The prosecutor in this case, Marcelino Aguilar, said kidnapping is becoming one of the most common offenses being investigated by the Office of Organized Crime. In Panama there will be a two day meeting of the prosecutors of the Network Against Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking. Aguilar explained that kidnapping, money laundering unrelated to drug trafficking, human trafficking, and arms trafficking are the main investigations conducted by his office. The deputy prosecutor against organized crime in Costa Rica, Walter Espinosa said they are seeking a joint coordination between prosecutors because there are many investigations being conducted on the border (between Panama and Costa Rica) as well as efforts against drug trafficking. He acknowledged there are economic and geographic limitations, but they make joint efforts to coordinate investigations. (Critica)

   

Editor's Comment: Hmmm. First of all I sort of doubt the numbers. It just doesn't sound right that there might be $11 million dollars worth of cigars in one container. Secondly, the way the Customs guys handled this also sounds strange. Seize and destroy, period? I bet some Panamanian businessman was importing these, and they wanted to kick someone in the nuts. Well, unless they were trying to bring in cigars under false labeling or pretenses, I guess. Who knows? Nothing more than speculation on my part. But, my radar on these things is usually pretty good. There's more to this story...   

Director Perez said thus far they have apprehended six suspects, of which one is a woman. Besides the arrest of these suspects, Perez said they also seized several vehicles, recovered $53,000 dollars of the total $104,000 stolen from the bank on Tuesday this week, and they also seized drugs discovered during the execution of the search warrants.

Panama's Auxiliary Prosecutor Dimas Guevara said their investigation started with the initial report of the bank robbery that occurred on Tuesday at the Banco Nacional on 12 de Octubre Avenue. Prosecutor Guevara said the six suspects managed to steal a little more than $104,000 dollars from the bank, and he is continuing with his investigation in order to press formal charges against the suspects, who remain in custody. He said one of the most important pieces of evidence they have thus far is the recovery of part of the money stolen from the bank, as well as the weapons and vehicles used in the robbery.

Prosecutor Guevara said "a part" of this criminal organization has been arrested, and their rapid capture can be attributed to the joint efforts of the National Police, the Direction of Judicial Investigation (DIJ), and the Public Ministry. Guevara said they managed to recover about half of the stolen money as well as the weapons and vehicles used in the robbery through the execution of "numerous" search warrants, and they are currently on the trail of the remaining suspects and the rest of the missing money. Guevara confirmed all six suspects are Panamanians, and so far there have been no indications of involvement by foreigners in the bank robbery.

The Director of the Department of Judicial Investigation (DIJ) Manuel Moreno said they seized 24 bags, each containing approximately 50 grams of cocaine (for a total of 1.2 kilograms).

Police Director Perez attributed the success of their operation to coordination, saying "as you can see we apprehended these delinquents in less than 24 hours. The most important thing is in the details. The remaining suspects know we are going to catch them. This is exactly the message I want to send - you're going to get caught." Perez said information provided by the first suspect captured just three hours after the robbery led them to the rest of the suspects. Director Perez was clearly proud when he said "this is not the largest bank robbery in the history of Panama - there have been others. But this is the first one that has occurred during our administration, and we resolved it within 24 hours."

Copyright 2012 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.    

Editor's Comment: Obviously, if 80% of the people are complaining about the security (crime) situation in the country, while the actual numbers and crime statistics reflect a decrease in crime, then there's a disconnect between reality and perception. Therefore, guys like Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino are either not doing a good enough job of getting the message out there, or they have a "credibility problem" - meaning, the people are simply not believing what they are being told when it comes to statistics on crime. Consider this - you live in a relatively quite neighborhood, not too much crime or violence. Then there's a very public murder on the city street right in front of your home. Someone comes along and guns down a neighbor who is shot many times, and who dies bleeding in the street. The police come, the medical examiners take away the body, the investigation begins, and the community is shaken. Statistically speaking that might be just one of the many hundreds of murders that will occur this year in Panama. However for the residents of that street or neighborhood it doesn't matter to them if there's only one murder all year long - because it happened on their street - so therefore there's "no security" in Panama. Mulino is wrong to simply "poo poo" the results of these kinds of polls. He needs to accept the fact that they have a massive problem with getting their message out, and making the perception match the numbers.   

Editor's Comment: Recently (yesterday?) another woman was busted trying to pass $3,600 dollars in fake bills at a bank. Heads up, apparently the local market has been flooded with fake bills. Here's a pretty good video that shows you how to check currency and spot counterfeits.

   

She remembered that before the gunshots she heard an exchange of words. Witnesses said as soon as he greeted them he was attacked. "Willy" received the first shot in the jaw and when he collapsed they finished him off. He was shot twice more, once in the stomach and once in the chest. His mother, who sensed death, ran to his aid, but the criminals were leaving. They walked and laughed as if nothing had happened.

"Willy" was the Chairman of the Board of "Landless", a group of people took over the slopes of the Loma del Sapo, because they were homeless. Wilfredo's personality has two moments: when he was in the ways of God and the people admired him; and the other for the separation from his spouse, when he got drunk and attacked his ex-wife's new partner, a Colombian who he shot El Progresso of San Miguelito.

Official reports say the foreigner had offered $5,000 to kill him, but no one dared to take the contract until the offer was increased to $10,000 dollars.

Machiavellian: To find the whereabouts of "Willy", the gunmen kidnapped his former spouse and her daughter, then, posing as angels, but the devil dressed as sheep, carried out the macabre plan. The police captured the suspects in the crime. The victim left two children and he predicted his death in December. To his mother he left the house and the custody of his children. (Critica)   

Editor's Comment: In Panama much of the lower level street crime is related to youth gangs in poorer neighborhoods who are fighting over turf and local drug trafficking for individual consumption.   

Gamal, upon returning home, was received by all of his neighbors, who gave him hugs and handshakes, and they threw a party to celebrate his innocence. "I spent the worst days of my life because I could not understand how I became involved in that case. If they had convicted me wrongfully they would have given me the maximum penalty, and I would not have been able to stand it," he said. During the time he was imprisoned, for seven days he was shackled hand and foot and without food. "They tried to intimidate me into saying I had done the murder and I should plead guilty, but I never did, because I didn't do it," he said. With a trembling voice Gamal thanked God, because there was an angel who saved him by making sure there was a working security camera running in the store at the time he was there to make his purchases. Yesterday Gamal saw his two daughters for the first time who screamed "Dad!" when they saw him. They ran into his arms because they missed him a lot.

Now, Gamal insists he is not involved in this case and he denies that he implicated others. His was the first case tired under the new adversarial criminal system in Cocle. The witnesses were a member of the State Border Service (SENAFRONT), one from the Judicial Investigation Department (DIJ), and the and two Asian owners of the store where he made his purchases that night. (Dia a Dia)

Editor's Comment: Oh, so he was tied and acquitted? That's different. I thought he was just released on bail or something. Yeah, it's sort of hard to be convicted of having killed someone in Coclé when you can prove you were in downtown Panama City buying a Coke at the time of the murder. I wonder how the police detectives were pointed to him in the first place. Last week some other dude was arrested in El Chorrillo for the same murder. Maybe it was a simple case of mistaken identity? The part about being shackled hand and feet for seven days with no food is troubling. He should immediately file a complaint against the National Police for human rights violations, but unfortunately in this country those kinds of complaints don't go very far or get much traction. He might get somewhere in the International Court of Human Rights, however. There have been decisions against Panama in which foreigners have been awarded verdicts and damages. But before they will take the case he first must exhaust all local avenues.    

Before, Overview

Before, Closeup

After, Overview

After, Closeup

Editor's Comment: Thanks, Russ. These "smash and grab" robberies are tough. If the bad guys can see any sort of bag or valuables in the back of your car they just bust the window, grab, and run. You might want to consider putting any and all valuables in the trunk, or in an opaque box in the back in the case of an SUV. Or even better, don't leave any kind of valuables in your car unattended, at all. Too bad you didn't catch the bad guys in the act on video - that would have been cool. Glad to see you're using a dash cam. Thanks again for the heads up.

Copyright 2012 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.   

The Second Murder: This incident occurred in sector 31 of Veranillo 31, near the convenience store "Papa", where the victim ended up in the middle of the street. The victim is an unidentified young man, about 20 years old, fair complexion, who had three gunshot wounds, one in the head, another in the left ear, and back, a police source revealed. The removal of the corpse began at 2:10 am and ended at 2:55 am, the authorities still do not know the motive for the killing. (Mi Diario)   

Mulino acknowledged an increase in simple thefts and domestic violence cases, but noted reductions in cases of robbery and personal injury. He announced this year they will continue to use the "Pele Police" handheld data system, but said the software will be upgraded to make it faster. On drugs, he reported the seizure of 40.3 tons, 14.3 tons less than in 2010, a phenomenon attributed to the fact drug traffickers have sought other routes because of the fence set up in Panama. (Prensa)

Editor's Comment: Less drugs passing through, so less murders. It's getting much harder for them to do business here in Panama so they are going elsewhere. Most of the murders in Panama are related in one way or the other to drug trafficking, either international trafficking or domestic turf battles between youth gangs. Also, 40 tons? I thought I saw yesterday they announced the seizure of a total of 30 tons during the year? ...    

Editor's Comment: The bodies of four men were discovered in Pacora over the weekend. They had all been shot in the face, their bodies were found in a car, and the car had been set on fire, apparently in an attempt by the perpetrators to cover their tracks and destroy evidence.   

The archives of the institution reflect that the defendant escaped from prison in Najayo, in the province of San Cristobal (in the Southern part of the Dominican Republic), on 30 November 2004, a month after he was arrested and brought to justice for the kidnapping of Wonny Ho Wong, a Chinese merchant, for whose rescue his family paid 1.5 million pesos (almost $39,000 at current exchange rates). In this case the former National Army Sergeant Fernando Carela Trinidad was also brought to justice, according to the entity.

Gilberto Ventura Ceballos was also taken to court in January 2003 for allegedly defrauding 8,000 pesos (just over $200) from the owners of a school by posing as an inspector from the Social Security Institute.

The police said they are conducting further research to determine what assistance the defendant had received to try to outwit the authorities, and in the next few hours they will provide greater details of the case.

The man was caught last month in the sector of Andres, in Boca Chica, about 30 kilometers east of Santo Domingo, submerged inside of a tank filled with water to try to evade police pursuit.

Ventura Ceballos is involved in multiple murders, in which on 15 September 2011 the other Dominican José Alcibiades Méndez was arrested in Panama, who apparently buried the bodies of their five victims under the floor of a residence in La Chorrera, Panama. The death of the five victims, murdered between 2010 and 2011, caused a stir in La Chorrera, where several thousand people marched in September to repudiate the kidnapping and murder. (Dia a Dia)

Editor's Comment: These are the guys who kidnapped and murdered five college students in an attempt to be paid ransom for their release. The Panamanian police basically botched the investigation. The suspects were not identified until the families of the victims themselves were able to find a surveillance videotape of one of the suspects buying red plastic bags in a store, that they were used to identify the location where the ransom money was supposed to be paid.   

Editor's Comment: Holy Crap! A guy gets stoned to death on Sunday morning and his killers are caught, tried, and convicted in three days? That, my friends, is simply unheard of in Panama, until now. Wow. That was fast. Normally murder suspects can sit in prison for years and years awaiting trial. This was whiff, bam, boom. I think I'm going to like this new adversarial criminal justice system.   

Editor's Comment: Calle 6 and Calle 17 are two different neighborhoods in Rio Abajo, controlled by different youth gangs.   

Mario's family members arrived at the scene, who reside in Rio Abajo. They collapsed when they heard their relative had died. Mario had a six month old baby who he had just registered yesterday morning in the Electoral Tribunal. His mother told El Siglo that her son was going to do some Christmas shopping at the Mutiplaza mall, located a few meters from where he was killed. The grieving woman said the car driven by her son belongs to some friends who were with him. At press time (10:30 pm) crime scene investigators and prosecutors remained at the scene gathering evidence. (El Siglo)

   

According to press sources, Noriega was the head of the headquarters of the western province of Chiriqui, bordering Costa Rica, where the events occurred. Last week, the Superior Tribunal of Chiriqui denied a petition for annulment filed by Noriega's defense lawyers.

The former strongman of Panama (1983-1989) is also accused in the 1969 murder of Luis Antonio Quiroz Morales from Chiriqui, but this process is under appeal. Noriega was extradited on 11 December from France, and he is being held at the El Renacer prison where he is serving sentences totaling more than 60 years in prison for crimes ranging from murder, violation of human rights and environmental damage. In all these cases, Noriega was convicted in absentia, because from January 1990 until his recent extradition, he has been serving prison sentences for drug trafficking and money laundering in the United States and France. (Panama America)

Editor's Comment: And I think this is how it's going to go. From now on out there will be sporadic news articles about legal cases, trials, and decisions regarding Noriega. I think he will remain in prison, and he won't be allowed "house arrest" or any other kind of leniency. I think there will be dozens of cases and decisions against him, and eventually he will die in prison. It won't end until his corpse is cold. And one more thing - with Noriega now on the ground and in a prison cell in Panama, the chances that the PRD will ever get elected to the presidency are very slim indeed. Everyone knows that if the PRD gets back in power you can count to ten and Noriega will be a free man. Case in point - Pedro Miguel Gonzalez. He ran away and hid in Cuba until Ernesto Perez Balladares got elected then it was "safe" for him to come back to Panama. He was acquitted in a rigged trial and he's a free man today, although there are still charges pending against him for terrorism in the United States.   

Father Majadas "was kidnapped by the G2 (state security) of Noriega in the city of Chitre, where he was the pastor, and they had to release him due to the pressure put on by the people in the area, because the people would not stop ringing the church bells," said Alida Spadafora. Spadafora's family is from Chitre and has a long friendship with Majadas for the spiritual advice he has given, she said.

Official "mug shot" of Manuel Antonio Noriega, taken at the El Renacer prison on 11 December 2011 upon his return to Panama from France.

Born in Avila, Spain, in 1945, José Majadas arrived in Panama at 28 years old in the early 70's, a newly ordained priest of the Order of St. Augustine, to perform various missionary labors. In January 1985 he was named pastor of St. John the Baptist Cathedral of Chitre, according to a tally published by the Catholic weekly magazine Panorama Panama in 2010, when he had 40 years in the priesthood. It was in that city, the capital of the central province of Herrera, where on 22 February 1989 he was arrested by supposed immigration agents to be deported, according to the complaint filed by the then Ambassador of Spain in Panama, Tomas Lozano Escribano. In 1993, Majadas was declared "Meritorious Son of Chitre", became a citizen of Panama and, since 2009, has been a pastor of the parish of Santa Maria La Antigua in Panama City.

Noriega was ousted on December 20, 1989 by a U.S. invasion and he remained in prison from 1990 until 11 December 2011 serving sentences for drug trafficking and money laundering, and now here in Panama he faces various sentences for a total of 60 years in prison, including the murders and beheading of Hugo Spadafora, who in 1985 publicly denounced him for his ties to drug cartels. The former general who is now 77 years old and infirmities of health, was the last dictator who oppressed Panama between 1983 and 1989, as part of the de facto regime started in 1968 by General Omar Torrijos, who died in 1981. (Telemetro)

Editor's Comment: In those last years leading up to the end of the military dictatorship in Panama, some of the most courageous people who regularly spoke out against Noriega in public were the priests - who regularly used their sermons to blast the atrocities being committed against the Panamanian people. Noriega would have liked to have gotten rid of Father Majadas through this "immigration / deportation" ruse, but the people in Chitre wouldn't let him get away with it.