As more details emerge in Miami-Dade County, regarding a discredited undercover law enforcement operation that directly wired more than $70 million in narco-profits overseas, yet failed to arrest a single person, Panama’s banks were the preferred destination of the traffickers involved.

A scandal involving officers of the Bal Harbour, Florida, Police Department, who have failed to account for large sums allegedly spent without any records or receipts, has revealed the specifics of the cash received by the undercover operation and promptly wired out to tax haven jurisdictions, zeroes in on Panama.

Of the 180 international wire transfers, 110 were sent to Panamanian financial institutions. This confirms that Panama remains a major, if not the principal gateway for narcotics profits earned in North America. There have been no prosecutions of financial institutions for money laundering for several years, let alone convictions or bank charter revocations. That is one of the reasons why Panama is the destination of choice.

In the year since the new reformist government came to office in Panama, no financial institutions have been charged, notwithstanding the massive Financial Pacific/Petaquilla Mining and PAN scandals, and widespread arrests for official corruption. It still appears to be business as usual for Panama’s money laundering financial institutions.

By Kenneth Rijock

Kenneth Rijock is a banking lawyer turned-career money launderer (10 years), turned-compliance officer specialising in enhanced due diligence, and a financial crime consultant who publishes a Financial Crime Blog. The Laundry Man, his autobiography, was published in the UK on 5 July 2012.