Panama's Minister Denies
Links to Colombia Drug
Lord
Panama's foreign
minister, Samuel Lewis
Navarro, a possible
presidential hopeful, on
Monday denied a
newspaper report that he
had business contacts
with one of Colombia's
top drug dealers.
Lewis Navarro described
as "absolutely false"
allegations that he had
dealings with Jose
Nelson Urrego, a former
communications head for
Colombia's powerful
Norte del Valle cocaine
cartel who was captured
in Sept. 2007.
"I have not known, do
not know and have never
had contact with Mr.
Nelson Urrego in my 50
years of life," Lewis
Navarro said a
statement.
Nelson Urrego said in an
interview with Miami's
Nuevo Herald newspaper,
published on Sunday,
that he had talked to
Lewis Navarro about
selling him a $12
million Pacific island
before his arrest last
year.
The interview was picked
up by Panama's
newspapers, stirring
controversy as Urrego is
known to have lived
undetected in Panama for
at least three years
before his arrest.
Lewis Navarro, who comes
from one of Panama's
wealthiest families,
said he had not had any
meetings, business or
otherwise with the drug
lord, whose cartel
operates over the border
in northern Colombia.
"I have no interest, nor
have I had any interest
in buying Chapera
Island," he added.
Urrego, who was arrested
in 1998 in Colombia for
activities related to
drug smuggling and
served a short prison
term, obtained a
Panamanian identity card
in 2004 and went on to
open bank accounts and
establish businesses in
Panama.
President Martin
Torrijos announced a
probe late last year
into how he managed to
live in Panama, even
buying Chapera Island,
for so long without
being noticed.
Urrego says he was an
informant for the United
States and had been
granted safe haven in
Panama. He was arrested
on Chapera island and is
currently in a
Panamanian jail.
Lewis Navarro has
indicated in the past
that he would be
interested in running in
the 2009 presidential
election.
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