international

Costa Rica, Panama to unite against crime

LA PRENSA

sharing: Costa Rican Attorney General Francisco Dall’Anese urged strengthened crime enforcement along the border with Panama. 1096080

Since being reelected as Costa Rica’s attorney general last year, Francisco Dall'Anese has introduced a series of laws aimed at combating corruption, organized crime and drug and human trafficking within the country, an anti-crime crusade that has earned him the nickname “The Iron Prosecutor.”

This week, while in Panama as a speaker at the Fifth Annual Congress of Latin American Journalism, Dall’Anese discussed his efforts to reign in transnational crime, a topic that is timely in Panama, given the passage of President Torrijos’ controversial security reforms and the ever-mounting crime rate.

Though the attorney general admitted that eradicating the many faces of organized crime in his country is difficult, he described how lawmakers created a new department of the Ministerio Público that deals directly with mafia-related crimes, such as prostitution, narcotics smuggling and money laundering.

As part of the project, an Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales was founded to work with other countries to share information, and a witness protection program was developed with the hopes of encouraging the public to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

Like Panama, Dall’Anese said that Colombian and Mexican drug cartels have been increasingly active along Costa Rican coasts since the United States beefed up internal security measures, limiting more direct access routes to transport their illicit cargo.

In the last 20 months, Costa Rican authorities have seized 70 tons of drugs, nearly the amount captured by Panamanian police since January.

Under new laws, Dall’Anese explained that Costa Rican police can wiretap in certain cases at the request of a public prosecutor.

“It’s our main weapon against the crimes of drug trafficking, terrorism, money laundering, sexual exploitation and hired assassins, which are the only cases where, by law, wiretapping is allowed,” he said.

The wiretapping provision in Panama’s security reforms is still being debated by the Asamblea Nacional.

When asked about the kind of relationship Costa Rican authorities maintain with their Panamanian counterparts, Dall’Anese intimated that cooperation between the two countries could be better, especially along the border.

“Both countries recognize that we have weaknesses in our common border, and therefore we are making efforts to coordinate actions in support of [strengthening it],” he said.

With that goal in mind, Dall’Anese indicated that he has met with his Panamanian counterpart, Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez, to organize an exchange of information and training between crime prosecutors in both countries.