Colón teen planned copycat school shootings 

A 14-year-old minor was arrested   in Panama on Tuesday for his alleged intention to replicate the murder of almost twenty students and two teachers at a school in the United States in 2022, in the “first cyberterrorism operation” carried out in the country, reported the authorities on Tuesday February

The capture of the minor occurred during raids carried out by the National Police and the Public Ministry in the Altos del Lago sector of Colón, one of the most violent in the country.

In the proceedings, 11 pieces of technological equipment were seized “that could be related to the facts,” the Police reported.

The investigations began after an alert by a social media account from which “a series of threats were made in which the intention to copy the criminal acts that took place in Texas, months ago, was, in which the lives of multiple students and two teachers were lost in a school,” said a police statement.

On May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old armed with an automatic rifle murdered 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in the Texas town of Uvalde, before being shot dead by police.

The”first cyberterrorism operation in Panama” led to the “possible location of the creator of the content”, who was taken before the authorities for legal proceedings while the investigation into this fact continues, according to official information.

Last September, at least one 15-year-old student died and two others were injured in an unprecedented armed attack carried out inside a school in the province of Colón, an area affected by drug trafficking, violence, and gangs.

Then it was reported that the hitmen would have been dressed in the school uniform to be to enter the school. The event was linked to problems between rival gangs.

 On Tuesday, the authorities reported the capture of about thirty people in Colón allegedly linked to the “Niños Sufridos” gang, who are accused of homicide, extortion, kidnapping, robbery, illegal possession of firearms, and distribution of illicit substances.

Colón, located on the shores of the Caribbean Sea 80 kilometers north of the capital, is one of the poorest and most troubled in the country and its streets witness constant fights between gangs, and homicides settling scores.

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