On December 29th, Panama's Public Ministry (equivalent of State Dep't in the US, I suppose*) announced the country's police force had stopped a band of drugs runners. In the operation one Colombian national died from bullet wounds in the shoot-out with police and two other Colombians were arrested. A total of "at least 250kg of cocaine" was also seized in the raid. All in all it looked like a goodly sized win for the whitehats in the ongoing LatAm cops'n'robbers cocaine game.
Then today, police announced that there were six arrests, not three. All six, including the dead person, are Panamanian nationals, not Colombians. And the haul from the raid was just 132kg of cocaine and 5kg of heroin. To give you a visual idea, this is what 51kg of cocaine looks like (a photo I found from a 2007 seizure in Kentucky, USA).
Then today, police announced that there were six arrests, not three. All six, including the dead person, are Panamanian nationals, not Colombians. And the haul from the raid was just 132kg of cocaine and 5kg of heroin. To give you a visual idea, this is what 51kg of cocaine looks like (a photo I found from a 2007 seizure in Kentucky, USA).
What are we looking at here? That to me looks like 20kg per grip bag, more or less. So 137kg of drugs is seven bags' worth, and 250kg is 12 or 13 bags' worth. You want to tell me that a professional drugs-fighting squad can mistake "at least 250kg" for an eventual 137kg total in drugs? Or let's put it another way: Do you, kind and gentle reader, have any trouble in telling the difference between the volumes of three sacks of cement and six sacks of cement? These people are kidding us, right?
This is the way the DEA hold themselves accountable in the ongoing "war against drugs", by the way. The DEA has controlled (cough, splutter, ahem) this drugs trafficking route since Noriega's time. Keep blaming the Axis of Evo, boyz.
*UPDATE AND CORRECTION: RG at Mexfiles know better and informs that the equivalent is the US Attorney General's office. Thanks for the correction.
This is the way the DEA hold themselves accountable in the ongoing "war against drugs", by the way. The DEA has controlled (cough, splutter, ahem) this drugs trafficking route since Noriega's time. Keep blaming the Axis of Evo, boyz.
*UPDATE AND CORRECTION: RG at Mexfiles know better and informs that the equivalent is the US Attorney General's office. Thanks for the correction.