crime

Cocaine seized in Colón

Authorities seized 700 kilos of cocaine yesterday and arrested four Colombian nationals in an operation near Pilón beach in Colón.

According to drug prosecutor José Abel Almengor, the operation was conducted in the early morning hours as a boat tried to make a clandestine landing on the beach.

There were six people on the boat, but two of them were able to jump overboard and escape when police arrived.

Almengor said that there was an exchange of gunfire between police and the drug traffickers, but no one was injured. He said the drug traffickers' boat was “riddled with gunshots.”

A search to find the two men who escaped was not successful, the prosecutor said.

Police found three vehicles parked near the boat’s landing site, leading police to think that the drugs were going to be loaded into them.

Almengor said the area is a common place for drug traffickers to transfer their shipments from sea to land.

He added that drug trafficking activities have increased on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of Panama. This is the sixth drug shipment that has been seized on the Atlantic side so far this year.

So far this year, authorities have seized almost 30 tons of drugs.