The Ministry of Security (Minseg) of Panama rectified a previous information, and noted that the drug seized in a container from Cuba was ”allegedly” introduced on Panamanian territory.

The Minseg said in a communiqué on Wednesday night that the crime ‘is not attributable to any State’, and added that ‘the contamination of containers in cargo ports represents one of the main modalities used by drug trafficking networks that threaten all countries affected by the production, traffic and consumption of drugs worldwide’.

A twit published in the Minseg’s official account On May 18 said that ‘Units from @SENANPanama find 46 suitcases with 1,517 packages of illegal substances in Puerto de Cristobal, Colon province, from Cuba with Turkey as the final destination. #ManoFirme’.

In April 2016, then Minister of Security Rodolfo Aguilera denied Cuba’s responsibility in a similar situation detected in Colon, which was reported by local media as if the drug had been introduced in Cuba, and clarified that authorities knew about the activity of contamination in Colon ports.

Like in the previous case, on this occasion, the manipulation was aimed at tarnishing the credibility of Cuban security systems, and Prensa Latina’s efforts to find official information from Panamanian authorities immediately were fruitless.

Cuba’s Customs Office was more explicit when referring to the issue in an official press release on Tuesday, in which it pointed out that the investigation on Cuban territory and the data received from Panamanian control corps ‘allow determining that the said container arrived in the Panamanian port terminals in Manzanillo and in Puerto de Cristobal later, with the seal placed in Cuba.’

On April 10, Juan Blanford White, who is accused of leading a cell that trafficked drugs in containers and who is considered the leader of operations to introduce drugs into containers in Colon ports, was arrested in the neighborhood of Clayton, in Panama City, very near the Embassy of the United States.


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