Central America Drug Cartels Take Double Hit

Police in central America have scored a double blow against drug traffickers by seizing more than 19 tonnes of cocaine and £106m in cash in separate operations.

On Sunday, Panamanian police intercepted a boat laden with one of the largest hauls of cocaine on record, 19.6 tonnes, the street value of which is estimated at more than £200m.

The police, who were working alongside agents from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), arrested 12 men on the boat, including Mexicans and Panamanians, and another two suspects in the capital, Panama City.

Local press reports, citing anonymous police sources, said the cargo belonged to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and that the detained men included a senior cartel leader. The vessel had been flying a Panamanian flag when it was intercepted near the island of Coiba, located just off the Pacific coast.

The drugs, which were concealed in the cargo hold, were thought to have originated from Colombia and been bound for the US.

In a separate operation last week Mexican police, who were also working with US drug enforcement officials, made what they said was the world's largest drug-cash seizure in a raid on a luxury house in the capital, Mexico City. Cash was stuffed inside walls, suitcases and closets, and included $205.6m in US dollars, €200,000 (£136,000) and 157,500 pesos (£7,200), all believed to be the profits from methamphetamines sold in the US, according to the DEA administrator, Karen Tandy.

"This is like law enforcement hitting the ultimate jackpot," she said.

The raid in Lomas de Chapultepec, a neighbourhood of walled compounds which is home to ambassadors and tycoons, also netted eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a pill-making machine. Seven people were arrested.

Analysts say these and other recent seizures reflect a growing drugs trafficking trade which is enriching powerful criminal gangs and destabilising the central American region.