Executions are connected with drugs cartel

PANAMA. The Panamanian authorities are investigating the drug trafficking links with a series of execution style murders of Colombians in the isthmus.

The Fourth Superior Prosecution Office is about to receive information from the Interpol about the Colombians Ilder Hernández Londoño and José Santos Bello, who were executed and found last February in Veracruz.

There has been information from Colombia about Santos Bello, who allegedly had links with the third most powerful cartel in Colombia, known as the Envigado Office, which also manages a hitman service.

The US Drugs Enforcement Agency DEA has been trying to find a connection between the murders of Hernandez and Bello and the Envigado Office.

According to the Colombian daily El Tiempo the DEA has established that Santos Bello 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 US via Costa Rica and Nicaragua

As in many other investigations where drug trafficking has been the motive for the crime, there have are no witnesses or people denouncing the killings.

An unofficial source told the television station TVN-2 that the prosecution office believes that seven people participated in the Hernandez and Bello murders.

It is known that the victims were kidnapped in Punta Pacifica together with Oscar Francisco Zuluaga, who is also Colombian and whose whereabouts are unknown.

Apparently a ransom note in which the kidnappers demanded $20,000 was sent out, butin the end only the maimed bodies of Hernandez and Santos Bello appeared.

In Colombia there have been murders related to the struggle for the control of the Envigado Office and it is possible that the Panamanian cases have a connection with that dispute.

The notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar formed the Envigado Office and after his death it continues to operate as the enforcement branch of drug trafficking.