Evaluating strategies against assassins

PANAMA. Panamanian and Colombian police authorities are analyzing strategies against the motorcycle assassins that have been operating in Panama for over 5 years.

People in both countries have been targets of this type of execution, often used by narco-trafficking gangs in order to control the movement of drugs to different markets.

The subject gained impetus after the assassination of the 38 year old Colombian Oscar Divado Cardoze, who received several bullet when attacked by two assassins on a motorcycle in front of the “Bayside” building in Costa del Este.

The assistant prosecutor in charge, Eduardo Guevara, said that the matter is starting to worry Panamanian authorities, as three executions of this nature have occurred since the start of the year.

“Regardless of the fact that these cases occur less frequently in Panama compared to other countries, we have to provide a follow up,” said Guevara.

Even though Guevara did not specify the strategies to be used to curtail the rise in executions, some reports point out that authorities are studying the possibility of prohibiting two people traveling on a motorcycle at night.

The rise of hired assassins cases has led Panama’s Attorney General, Ana Matilde Gomez, to create a special office to deal with organized crime, which will be headed by prosecutor Jose Ayu Prado, former director of the Directive for Judicial Investigation (DIJ).

According to Gomez, the new prosecutor’s office will begin work on March 3, in order to focus on high profile delinquents.

Police sources are trying to establish if the Colombian’s execution earlier this week holds any relations to the two other recent cases in Panama.

The first occurred last Monday with the seizure of $2.5 million in cash and 200 kilos of cocaine found inside the house of the Mexican narco Edgar Gutierrez, in El Crisol, San Miguelito.

The execution could also be related to the seizure of $392,000 in counterfeit money that was hidden in several plastic bags near the Caimitillo bridge in the Via Centenario.