National Customs Authority Found 19 Boxes of Fake martinelli’s Imported from China

The discovery was made during an audit of a warehouse located in Plaza Chilibre, where 183,202 fake coins were found last week.  A statement from Customs details that the diligence in which the new batch of ‘martinelli’ coins was located is part of the investigation being carried out to establish their origin.  After locating the new boxes, the Judicial Investigation Directorate (DIJ) and the Public Prosecutors Office (MP) were called to verify whether the coins found on Thursday, November 7, 2024, are part of the batch located last week or if it is a previous shipment.  According to investigations carried out by the MP, the coins arrived in a container at France Field in the Colon Free Zone and then left in a truck to Plaza Chilibre where they were confiscated by the authorities.  In this case, the MP was able to charge Zhuying Luo, Yanghua Zhang and Manuel Antonio Chang, who received the shipment in a warehouse located in Plaza Chilibre.

However, the three defendants claimed during a hearing held on November 3 that they were unaware of the contents of the boxes and that they only store the goods.  Both the MP and Customs are on the trail of the person or persons responsible for introducing the counterfeit coins into Panama and are trying to establish with certainty their origin.  Investigative authorities estimate that an organized criminal network is responsible for the introduction of counterfeit coins into Panama, since their production, transportation and distribution in Panamanian commerce require well-structured logistics.  Analysis carried out using machines from the National Bank of Panama determined that the confiscated coins had a design imitating the single-color logo of World Youth Day (WYD), which was put into circulation in 2017.