Organized crime infiltrating Panama’s justice system
In August 2015, a network of officials from the Second Court of Justice who collected bribes for the allocation of bail, precautionary measures, and influencing the decisions of juries was exposed; other investigations have uncovered the involvement of judicial officials and security agencies in similar practices.
In the last two years the cases have accumulated reports La Prensa and on Wednesday, November 16, two officials from the Judicial Branch, and two from the General Directorate of the Penitentiary System, were arrested in Colón in the midst of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor for falsifying a judge’s signature to release five people subject to legal proceedings.
In a hearing held Friday, a guarantee judge charged them with the alleged commission of document falsification and drug-related crimes. One of them was detained, while the other three are monitored through electronic bracelets.
On October 28 of this year, another investigation by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office led to the arrest of a woman who worked as an operational assistant in the Public Ministry who forged prosecutors’ signatures and used the institution’s stamps to remove firearms and ammunition that were in the Custody Center for Seized Assets and Funds.
On May 25 year, an agent of the National Aeronaval Service (Senan) was arrested on suspicion of collaborating with an organized crime network that was dismantled with the Polux operation.
The group, which operated between Panama and Colombia and was dedicated to the transfer of drugs.
One of the most notorious cases occurred in February of this year when the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime revealed that Nicel Solano, who worked in the office of Supreme Court Justice Maribel Cornejo, alerted members of the Humildad y Pureza gang, regarding raids and other judicial proceedings. Solano was arrested on February 10 in the midst of Operation Damascus, which dismantled part of a criminal network allegedly led by Carlos Roberto Aguilar.
“At no time was he assigned any criminal case,” said the Judicial Branch in a statement.
Fisher Operation
In January, Neury De La Cruz González, who worked as a notifier in the municipal court of Ancón, reached a sentence agreement after she was arrested in the Fisher operation. The former official was charged with money laundering The Fisher operation has been one of the biggest operations of 2022, after at least $10 million was seized in Colón.
In that operation, four members of the National Police and another from the Senan were arrested, along with two workers from the Panama Canal Authority, an official from the Ministry of Education, and one from a community board.
On January 19, six members of the Senan were arrested for their participation in a network dedicated to drug trafficking. According to the Public Ministry, they provided logistical support and information to the criminal group about the entity’s patrol boats used to detect drug traffickers. Among the most important cases of 2021 is the one related to the release of José Cossio the leader of a criminal organization dedicated to drug trafficking.
On September 2021, the then magistrate of the Court, Luis Ramón Fábrega, announced that there was an investigation underway against substitute judge, Gerardo Ríos, for having ordered the release of Cossio.
In a recent interview, María Eugenia López, the Court’s presiding magistrate, admitted that there is corruption in the system.
