Report: Mexican cartels are in Panama

PANAMA CITY, Panama (ISH) – At least four Mexican cartels linked to murders are in Panama, one of the Central American nation’s leading newspapers reported on Sept. 16.

Bureau of Prisons and Intelligence reports “confirm the presence … of the Los Zetas, Beltrán Leyva, Sinaloa and Juárez” cartels, which “use Panama as a base of operations for transporting cocaine into Mexico and the United States,” La Prensa reported.

“Of the nearly 2,500 foreigners currently detained in Panama, between 90 and 100 are Mexicans, all in drug cases and linked to cartels,” La Prensa added.

Law enforcement personnel are looking into killings that appear to have “an elevated degree of violence that appear to have been committed by Colombian or Mexican hit men, or by Panamanian killers who copy the methods of these individuals,” the newspaper said.

“About 20 Mexicans linked to drug cases were murdered in Panama between 2009 and 2012,” La Prensa said, citing a National Police Homicide Investigation Unit report.