https://www-laestrella-com-pa.translate.goog/internacional/america/220827/panama-enviara-ee-uu-droga?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

In the absence of an incinerator for burning drugs, Panama will send the United States 41.28 tons of accumulated drugs, product of seizures made by the Public Force in recent months.

The measure of sending the drug to the United States is to avoid damage to the environment caused by the traditional burning of this illicit substance “in the open,” the government reported Friday.

“We want to root out the contamination caused every time the drug is burned in the open. We need to guarantee a healthy environment and this is a concrete action for the benefit of all”, explained the Minister of Public Security, Juan Manuel Pino, who was accompanied by the Attorney General, Javier Caraballo.

During the transfer of the drug in an Air Force plane there will be the presence of the security forces, the prosecutor Javier Caraballo and the Drug Prosecutor’s Office.

Caraballo specified, for his part, that the drug will be taken to the United States for destruction until Panama has an incinerator in accordance with current environmental measures, which is expected to occur in the medium term.

Under current cooperation mechanisms with the United States Embassy, ​​​​the transfer of the cocaine was coordinated at no cost to Panama, a procedure also used by the authorities in Costa Rica and which has been effective and convenient.

The mission in the United States will be carried out in the presence of a Commission of Specialists, which for two years carried out the corresponding evaluations and will be responsible for preparing records and minutes of this international operation, which is drug seized in different operations, in its fight to combat organized crime and drug trafficking for the benefit of peace and tranquility in the region.

Monthly in Panama, the security forces in coordination with the Public Ministry seize 12 tons of drugs, which means that every three months the storage spaces are saturated.

This forces drug prosecutors, police officers, experts, the Judicial Investigation Directorate and a technical team to request a work team of 350 agents, a security deployment that must guarantee the safe transfer to any point in the country, to carry out the burning. of drugs in the open, a dangerous and polluting charge.

The logistics are complicated, the accumulation of drugs is constant and the cost for each drug burning exceeds $200,000.

Panama seized the historic figure of 128.7 tons of drugs in 2021, and between January and June 30 it had confiscated 65 tons, President Laurentino Cortizo said on July 1 in his management report before the Assembly.