From:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200069215016.htm
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 9, 2000
With U.S. gone, Panama is a mecca for drug trafficking
By Bill Gertz
Panama is a haven for illegal drug trafficking and money
laundering that has grown worse since the pullout of U.S.
military forces last year, according to a law enforcement
intelligence report.
"Panama's corrupt and ill-trained law enforcement units
continue to be overwhelmed by trafficking efforts and are
basically ineffective in their struggle," says the internal
report obtained by The Washington Times.
The May 2000 report says Panama has made "few inroads" in
the battle against illegal drug trafficking and financial crimes
during the first half of 2000.
The failure is blamed on the country's new president, Mireya
Moscoso, and "the U.S. withdrawal and turnover of its military
bases and the Canal in January 2000."
Panama's Tocumen International Airport has "a serious
security problem . . . with internal conspiracies involving ramp
and cargo personnel who facilitate narcotics loads," the report
says.
Flights by the Panamanian carrier, COPA, will begin soon to
Los Angeles and will create new problems for airline and airport
security that "already has its problems keeping narcotics off . .
. aircraft," the report says.
Chinese and Russian organized crime groups also are using
Panama for smuggling illegal drugs, weapons and aliens.
"Intelligence sources indicate that Chinese and Russian
organized crime factions are active in narcotics, arms and
illegal alien smuggling utilizing Panama as a base of
operations," the 11-page report says, noting that the number of
Chinese nationals in Panama increased dramatically in the past
five years.
The intelligence report was produced by a U.S. government
law enforcement agency involved in monitoring imports. The name
of the agency was withheld at the request of an agency spokesman.
The report also says a Chinese company that leased port
facilities at either end of the Panama Canal obtained the
concessions through "an unfair and corrupt contractual bidding
process."
The company, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa Co. Ltd.,
runs the facilities at the strategic ports of Balboa and
Cristobol, on the Pacific and Atlantic respectively.
"Its major shareholder, Li Ka-Shing, reportedly has ties
with the Red Chinese government," the report says. "Shen Jueren,
the communist official who heads China Resources, and Li
Ka-Shing, owner of Hutchison Whampoa, are both reportedly
partners in a Hong Kong bank."
China Resources owns 10 percent of Hongkong International
Terminals, Hutchison Whampoa's flagship company, whose majority
owner is Li Ka-Shing, according to a 1997 memorandum from the
U.S. consulate in Hong Kong.
Senate investigators identified China Resources in 1997 as
"an agent of espionage � economic, military and political." The
firm also is linked to the Lippo Group, which was implicated in
illegal campaign donations to the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election
campaign.
The intelligence report was produced to assist U.S. law
enforcement agencies in tracking illegal activities in Panama.
Any people or cargo entering the United States from Panama should
be watched closely, it says.
The report is expected to be discussed Friday at a hearing
on Panama's security by the House Government Reform subcommittee
on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources.
According to the report, Panama's political instability,
economic woes and criminal activities began after the December
1989 arrest of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega by the U.S. military.
The situation has not improved under Miss Moscoso, whose
administration has been unable to cope with the activities,
despite increased efforts at drug interdiction.
"Panama remains a major transit country for cocaine and
increasingly heroin, due to its proximity to Colombia and other
narcotics-producing nations and its apparently inadequate border,
airport and maritime controls," the report says, noting the
government is facing "a difficult uphill battle."
Drug seizures by authorities in Panama declined by 80
percent last year from 1998 levels, and "no major narcotics
traffickers or money launderers were arrested."
Experts on the region supported the conclusions of the
report.
"The increase in drug activity is a direct consequence of
closing Howard Air Force Base, and the loss of radar coverage by
AWACs planes that are no longer flying out of there," said Tomas
Cabal, an investigative reporter based in Panama.
"The Panamanians have no way to defend themselves," said
retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Gordon Sumner, a former chairman of
the Inter-American Defense Board and former ambassador-at-large
for Latin America. "We've withdrawn our capability and left them
vulnerable to whoever wants to come in. The narcoterrorists have
money and they have bought their way in."
All site contents copyright � 2000 News World Communications, Inc.
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