Operation Fisher haul – $10 million, mansions, farms, cars

A mansion with an ocean view, valued at $1 million; an apartment of almost half a million dollars, in the heart of the capital multiple farms valued at over$350,000 apiece were ordered confiscated by a Panama judge on Tuesday as a follow up to Operation Fisher.

Three residences in La Chorrera, located in the Summer Hill upscale district Three residences in the community of Nueva Providencia, in Colón. It was in one of them that the $10 million cache was found. A company called Magna Pesca, which according to the investigations of the Public Ministry, was used as a screen to simulate activities related to fishing.

This company is headed by José Luis General, the man who, according to the authorities, is the leader of the group.

The fortune of this criminal structure was also made up of five maritime vessels valued at $400,000 with which fishing operations were simulated and which at the same time were used to transport drugs.

Among the assets owned by this group that collaborates with the Clan del Golfo, of Colombia, there are 38 cars, which were in the name of frontmen. A real estate agency managed by a lawyer, who was in charge of creating joint-stock companies, was also intervened. Sources linked to the investigation revealed that this week the prosecution carried out visual inspections in some notaries, in search of information on this case.

Last Monday, December 13, the guarantee judge Teodolinda Cardoze, legalized the seizure of these assets and $ 10 million found in the cove. In this case, 56 people are being investigated who are accused of the alleged aggravated illicit association, as perpetrators. 22 of them were also attributed money laundering.

On December 9, Judge Cardoze ordered the preventive detention of 51 of the 56 defendants. While one of the defendants, Xavier Bartuano, accepted a sentence of 68 months in prison for the crime of illicit association.

The Fisher operation is led by the First Drug Prosecutor’s Office, which began the investigation in February 2020.

According to acting Attorney General of the Nation Javier Caraballo, most of the defendants did not have a criminal record but accumulated large amounts of money and thus gradually structured groups such as the one dismantled by Operation Fisher.