Panama Has Seized 6.4 Tons of Illicit Drugs So Far in 2016

PANAMA CITY – Panamanian authorities have seized 6.4 tons of drugs and arrested 72 alleged drug traffickers so far this year, the Public Safety Ministry reported Sunday.

The suspects belong to four bands using shell companies in small towns around Panama City, namely Juan Diaz, Parque Lefevre, Betania and Rio Abajo, “where they warehoused large shipments of drugs, to send them later to Central America, the United States and the Caribbean,” the ministry said in a statement.

The arrests and seizures were made in 30 anti-drug operations in the provinces of Panama Oeste, Colon, Veraguas and Chiriqui.

The National Police seized 3,368 kilograms of drugs and more than a million dollars in cash, and the Senan air-sea service seized 2,750 kg of narcotics and other drugs.

Meanwhile, the National Border Service seized 253 kg of cocaine and 39 packages of marijuana.

Of the total seizures, 4.5 tons consisted of cocaine and at least 1.3 tons consisted of pot.

Official figures reveal that 2015 was the biggest year in the past decade for drug seizures in Panama, with at least 58.1 tons confiscated, according to the latest government tally.

14 yr old Teen Arrested in Murder of Peruvian Professor in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO – Civil Police in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro arrested Friday a 14-year-old boy accused of murdering Peruvian university professor Carlos Patricio Mercado Samanez, whose body was found with stab wounds, officials said.

The suspected murderer apparently confessed the homicide to his parents, who chose to notify the authorities, the G1 news Web site reported Friday.

The chief motive being weighed by police is that the slaying, which took place Monday afternoon when the professor went to take his dog for a walk, was the consequence of a robbery.

However, despite the arrest of the suspected murderer, his belongings have still not been found, so an investigation has been opened to determine whether someone else might have taken part in the crime.

Mercado Samanez, 62, has resided more than 30 years in Rio de Janeiro, teaching at the Pontifical Catholic University, or PUC, and Rio de Janeiro State University, or UERJ.

The Peruvian’s body was found in a canal at Quinta de Boa Vista, a park in the city’s downtown area with extensive green zones, and was taken to the medical examiners’ office, where his relatives identified him on Tuesday.

Mercado, who wrote several books on the mathematics of finance, was the coordinator of an industrial engineering program at the PUC and was an associate professor of economics at the UERJ.

The late professor earned an industrial engineering degree at the National University of San Marcos in Lima. He later received a master’s in production engineering and earned a doctorate in business administration, finance and economics.

Mexican Authorities Seized 438 Kilos of Cocaine in Western Port

MEXICO CITY – Prosecutors seized 438 kilos of cocaine that arrived in Manzanillo, a port in the western Mexican state of Colima, from Buenaventura, Colombia’s main Pacific port, the federal Attorney General’s Office said.

“The federal prosecutor in the area, with the support of law enforcement agents and investigators from the Criminal Investigations Agency (AIC), inspected three containers,” the AG’s office said in a statement.

Seven suitcases holding 363 bricks of cocaine, with a total weight of 438 kilos and 240 grams, were found in the containers, the AG’s office said.

“The items secured were retained by the federal prosecutor, who continues investigating” the drug case, the AG’s office said.

The Colima unit of the AG’s office worked with the marine corps and the SAT tax agency on the drug bust.

Cocaine shipments arriving from Buenaventura, Colombia, have been seized in the past in Manzanillo.

Officials seized 123 kilos of cocaine that arrived from the Colombian port city in August 2015.

ISIS use of children for suicide missions skyrocketing - report

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U.S. Targets ISIS in Libya, Citing National Security Threat

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Defense Department reported Friday that its bombing of an Islamic State camp this Friday in Libya was carried out after discovering the jihadists there “were planning external attacks on U.S. and other Western interests in the region.”

“The U.S. military conducted an airstrike in Libya targeting an ISIL (an alternate acronym for Islamic State) training camp near Sabratha and Noureddine Chouchane, a.k.a. ‘Sabir,’ a Tunisian national who was an ISIL senior facilitator in Libya associated with the training camp,” the department said in a statement.

“We took this action against Sabir and the training camp after determining that both he and the ISIL fighters at these facilities were planning external attacks on U.S. and other Western interests in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters.

Cook recalled that Sabir was considered one of the suspects in perpetrating the deadly March 2015 attack on Tunisia’s Bardo Museum and has helped move potential foreign combatants affiliated with IS from Tunisia to Libya and other countries.

The U.S. attack left some 40 people dead, mostly Tunisians and Algerians, authorities in Libya said, adding that no Libyans were killed.

“This was an instance where we saw an opportunity to strike at ISIL in Libya and we carried out that strike and we feel confident this was a successful strike,” Cook said.

Tunisia together with France are the chief exporters of volunteers to IS, from where close to 5,000 combatants have emigrated to Syria and Iraq, according to official figures.

A large part of those who have returned to Tunisia have traveled on to Libya, where they have contributed to helping develop the branch of IS in that country.

Media Owner Killed in Southeast Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Moises Dagdug, a media owner, journalist and former federal lawmaker, was stabbed to death at his home in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco in a suspected robbery, according to one of his associates, who told EFE that Dagdug had received threats.

The homicide occurred early Saturday at the 65-year-old Dagdug’s home in Villahermosa, Tabasco’s capital, with the assailants making off with the victim’s vehicle after killing him.

Dagdug was the owner of a radio station and a television news channel in Tabasco that was part of the Grupo VX media group, according to local media. He also hosted a show on that same radio station, XEVX La Grande de Tabasco, in which he was very critical of the current state governor, Arturo Nuñez Jimenez.

“The editorial line of Grupo VX ... was certainly critical, questioning the government’s bad actions,” the group’s news director, Angel Antonio Jimenez, told EFE.

He recalled that Dagdug had received threats and indeed had publicly denounced them on his show, titled “De frente Tabasco,” adding that Tabasco was suffering “a public safety crisis.”

“He wasn’t afraid to say that he’d been threatened, that he was receiving constant threats. In fact, the criminals had entered his private home on a couple of occasions. He changed his security system, and indeed his lifestyle had changed dramatically,” the news director said.

Dagdug represented Tabasco in the national legislature between 2006 and 2009 as a member of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for the practice of journalism, with more than 100 members of the media having been killed since 2000, according to the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes against Freedom of Expression.