Twilight for 12 migrant-trafficking suspects

Authorities of the Public Ministry and the National Border Service (Senafront) arrested 12 people on Wednesday May 25 for their alleged involvement in illegal migrant trafficking, from Panama to Costa Rica.

The First Specialized Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime, reported that 20 proceedings were carried out in different parts of the country.

Prosecutor Emeldo Márquez highlighted that Operation Twilight 2 is the continuation of the investigation that took place in September 2021, in which some 24 people were apprehended.

He said  that the criminal group was engaged in the smuggling of national migrants from Haiti, Ecuador and Bangladesh.

“This criminal behavior carries a sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison. The Public Ministry will request the formulation of the corresponding imputation, ”said Márquez.

He added that this criminal network illegally moved migrants from the Panama border with Colombia to the border with Costa Rica.

The arrested suspects, all Panamanians, will be brought before a guarantee judge. No migrants were located in the raids.

The Senafront commissioner, Moisés Correa, announced that the raids on residences took place in the provinces of Darién, Panama, West Panama, and Veraguas, and cell phones, computers, and USB devices were seized.

Prosecutor Márquez reported that in the investigations they were able to discover that this group charged between 200 and 500 dollars per person, to carry out the transfer from one point to another, evading immigration control posts.