Drug tainted $20,000 cash for Bitcoins

A COUSIN of ex-president Ricardo Martinelli found with $20,000  tainted with traces of drugs, told police who stopped him in Panama’s San Francisco district that the money was to buy Bitcoins.

But on Monday, February 19, 2018, the Superior Court of Appeals granted Ramón Martinelli Corro and Jorge Luis Álvarez Cumming release from preventive detention and replaced it with country arrest.

The suspects, charged with money laundering have to report every Tuesday and Friday before the authorities and cannot leave the country.

They had to hand over their passports and cannot change their address.

The Drug Prosecutor’s Office requested that the provisional  detention  be continued

Drug Prosecutor, Javier Enrique Franco, said that five samples  tested positive for various drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines.