In less than six months, two Panamanians allegedly linked to the drug business, have fallen into operations carried out in Dubai and Spain, in the latter the arrest being arrested is Jaime Powell Rodríguez, alias ‘Yunya’, who is also wanted by the Panamanian authorities for the alleged commission of crimes of document forgery and gangism.
Alias ‘Yunya’ fled in 2019, when he was going to be tried for sending drug containers to Spain from a port of Colón, but he was apprehended on February 20 in an operation carried out by the Spanish authorities, for his apparent link to drug trafficking and money laundering.
Powell Rodríguez, is considered ‘the leader of the Baghdad cartel’, and according to the newspaper El País, the organization is in charge of channeling a third of the drug that enters Europe and whitewashed the profits of it through the smuggling of gold bars from Panama.
They also point out that the one arrested today would have links with the ‘world drug lords’, an organization that was dismantled in November 2022, in which the Panamanian, Anthony Alfredo Martínez Meza, who would be in charge of logistics to contaminate the containers with drugs that would leave Panama to Europe, was also arrested.
The Spanish police had been on the track of Powell Rodríguez since 2021, when the United States Treasury reported on the presence of “the leader of the main Panamanian cartel” who resided in Spain and that had as its “main activity the introduction of large quantities of cocaine in Europe,” according to a note provided by the Spanish National Police, in which they also indicate about the smuggling”
According to the report presented by the Spanish newspaper, the commercialization of gold was done through a Spanish smelter. When the metal company’s financial director was arrested, it was discovered that the gang was also laundering with cryptocurrencies.
From that operation, where 10 other people were also arrested, 92 accounts were blocked with 400,000 euros, about 39 properties valued at 1.5 million euros were seized, alias ‘Yunya, managed to escape.
Debt to justice in Panama
Powell Rodríguez, alias ‘Yunya’, has his accounts pending with the Panamanian justice system. On June 12, 2018, he was located in the United Arab Emirates, from where he was extradited on June 25 of the same year to Panama, according to the international news agency Efe, which quotes a local newspaper, ‘Yunya’ would be on vacation in the eastern country.
And, in Panama he is wanted for “counterfeiting of documents in general”, in addition, he was investigated for the crime against collective security in the form of gangrail by the Superior Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Crimes of Illicit Association.
Originally from Colón, Powell Rodríguez was identified as one of the largest drug traffickers in the country, who used the ports of the province to send drugs to Spain. However, in 2019, when he was waiting for a trial, he was released by a judge and since then he has been missing.
It is estimated that between Powell Rodríguez and Martínez Meza, about 10 tons of cocaine could have entered Spain in recent years.