Panamanian in Dubai key player in busted super drug cartel

The Spanish Civil Guard and Europol on Monday dismantled a “super cartel” that controlled a third of the cocaine traffic that entered Europe with a Panamanian living in Dubai as one of the six “drug lords” who controlled and directed the criminal activities of the various cells.

 Spanish media identify him as  Anthony Alfredo Martínez Meza, the person responsible for introducing the drug into the port of Manzanillo (Panama) and who maintained contact with the rest of the barons in the emirate.

Martínez, according to the European authorities, was the connection to supply drugs to Europeans and who seemed to be off the radar of the Panamanian authorities. The name of Anthony Alfredo Martínez appears in the Public Registry as a director of various corporations reports La Estrella. One is Machina Supply International, Inc, created in 2009. He is also a director of JPM, Int, SA (2014) and Francisco Martínez, SA (2000), all based in the province of Colón and in which the named holds several management positions. In some, he shares management with other people who, in turn, have investments in the Atlantic sector of the country. The company owns a landlocked 9,000-meter farm in the province of Coclé, acquired for $1,000 in 2012 through a mortgagee.

Some 13% of the drugs that leave Panamanian ports are destined for Saudi Arabia, a source from the National Aeronaval Service (Senan). The agent assured this medium that 95% of the drugs that arrive in Colón, from Colombia, leave through the ports and have 25% Belgium as their main destination, Rotterdam, the Netherlands 19%, Italy 13%, and Barcelona 6%, additional to Saudi Arabia, the emirate to which Dubai belongs. The Spanish Civil Guard, within the framework of the international police operation ‘Desert Light’, coordinated by Europol and in which police agencies from the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Dubai participated, managed to dismantle the super network of drug trafficking and apprehended 49 people, including the six drug lords, based in Dubai.

International media identify the Bosnian Edin Gacanin, Zouhair Blekahir, Hoesny Ajaray, and Rabhioui Bourfa, the last three of North African descent, and the British Ryan James Hale as the bosses of e organization that established its base in these countries, coinciding with the location of the most important European ports, the gateway for drugs to Europe, and the destinations for drugs leaving Panama. Spanish authorities verified how Spain had become the headquarters of a cell of the criminal organization that introduced drugs through various ports and, had formed a complex corporate network of real estate investments in the Costa del Sol area. The actions of the European agencies and Dubai collapsed the logistical structure, represented by the groups responsible for the introduction of the drug in each country, as well as decapitating the organization.

In Panama, the ports have become the safest route for traffickers, given the connections managed locally by two criminal groups that are in charge of receiving, moving, and protecting the merchandise while it is on Panamanian soil.