Top ex-cops charged following arms trafficking raids

AFTER a 12-hour marathon Imputation hearing that ended at  2 am on Thursday, July 16  three of Panama’s former top security bosses were indicted for the alleged illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

Ex-National Police Directors Omar Pinzón and  Frank Abrego and Belsio González former Director of the National Border Service (Senafront) and the National Naval Service (Senan) were placed under house arrest. arrest and an impediment to leaving the country, without judicial authorization

the hearing that began at 20 pm on Wednesday, July 15 The judge of guarantees Eric González also imputed the charges to five other people apprehended in “ Operation Fury ”. They are Juan Pineda, Luis Cegarro, Roberto García Dapena, Rafael Bárcenas – former director of the Civil Aeronautical Authority – and Jack Btesh , from the company Aerotécnica de Panamá, SA, who imported the batch of weapons investigated.

The judge issued the precautionary measures for periodic reporting twice a month to García Dapena and Pineda. The rest of the accused have house arrest.

The prosecution had requested the provisional arrest of all.

In the investigation, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime tries to specify why a number of weapons acquired for state security entities were in the possession of individuals and former officials

“Through the positions held by these people, at the times when they were directing state security institutions, as well as other public state institutions, they used end-user certifications to be able to import firearms, including weapons of war and other types of weapons that are currently in the possession of civilians, ”said prosecutor Emeldo Márquez.

By  6:00 pm  Tuesday, 34 weapons had been recovered, in 28 raids carried out in various parts of the country. Those weapons, “with the exception of two, have security levels from the Republic of Panama as their final user,” said the prosecutor.

Raids are continuing and more weapons are being recovered and gathering the testimony of people to explain how they acquired them. “We do not rule out that later on it can be imputed to other people and that other criminal acts can be added to those that we have already imputed today,” said Márquez.

The judge established a period of six months to complete the investigation