The war between Colombian drug traffickers for control of the business
may have moved to Panama. U.S. anti drug trafficking agency the DEA is
investigating the links between recent crimes in Panama and the ‘Office
of Envigado’, the third most powerful drug cartel in
Colombia.
Newspaper El Tiempo reported Monday that the DEA is investigating several murders in Panama dating back to February 10, when five Colombians were kidnapped in a shopping center
of Panama.
Three days later the bodies of kidnap victims Ilder Jaime Hernández and José Santos Bello were found with bullets wounds to their heads just outside Panama City.
According to El Tiempo, the DEA is investigating Santos Bello’s connections to a Colombian drug cartel. It has been established that he worked for ‘Yiyo’, one of the leaders of the ‘Office of Envigado’.
‘Yiyo’ is believed to have received small shipments of cocaine in Panama, which he then sent to the U.S via Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
El Tiempo suggested that the murders in Panama may by linked to the escalating war between rival heirs to the ‘Office of Envigado’ in Medellin.