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A very sad news shook Panama's society yesterday. A missing six years old girl was found dead in the house of her godfather. The son of the godfather was arrested and accused of commiting such horrendous crime. I did cry when I heard about it and when I saw the sad video of the little girl parents. There are a lot of people in Panama that would like just only 5 minutes alone with this animal and punish him little by little for this horrible crime done to a poor little angel. The young father of the little girl was totally destroyed, crying aloud with pain and sorrow.... this is something to make anybody crazy. This is such a pain that nobody can heal. This is rising a cry from people in Panama. Some are asking for death penalty for such kind of crime in our country. https://www.tvn-2.com/videos/noticias/crimen-nina-anos-Chorrera-impacto_2_4921027921.html Here is an interview with the father of the little girl. He tells about how they discovered the body of the girl in the godfather's house. About 50 yards from their house. How the mother of the criminal helped his son to hide what he did. http://www.telemetro.com/nacionales/Padre-hallada-Chorrera-sospechoso-buscarla_0_1092191234.html

Operation 'Asturia' Takes Down Major Criminal Gang A criminal organization dedicated to drug trafficking, which operated from Panama and that is linked to the Clan Úsuga, was dismantled thanks to an operation initiated in 2015 by the Attorney General, National Police and Judicial Investigation. The details were revealed in a press conference in the afternoon of Wednesday, where it is said that the drug shipments arriving in boats, from Colombia, to Panamanian coasts from where they were mobilized in vehicles with double bottom by Panama, Colon and Chiriqui to Costa Rica. The so-called Operation Asturia led to the arrest of 64 people, including foreigners and panamanians, including members of the National Police, the Public Prosecutor's office and a lawyer whose function was to bribe officials to cooperate with the organization. One of the detainees is Jairo Rivas, alias "The Pattern", who was offered a reward of 10,000 B/.00. Seized was 2.5 million dollars, 49 vehicles, four tons of cocaine and one of marijuana, whose market value is several million dollars. In addition to arrests, charges to other 23 people for a crime against the collective security in relation with drugs. http://www.telemetro.com/nacionales/Desmantelan-Panama-organizacion-Clan-Usuga_0_1031297890.html

Necesitamos alertar a todos los residentes de Alto Boquete sobre la actividad confirmada de una banda de robo que opera en este sector. Según los informes, han sido responsables de más de 6 robos de viviendas de propiedad panameños en la zona. La policía está investigando, pero necesita su ayuda. Si ve algo fuera de lo común, por favor llame inmediatamente a la Policía Nacional al 104 o 720-2145. Su información será confidencial. Se sospecha que la pandilla está usando una camioneta con equipo de jardinería en el vagón. Creemos que están utilizando esto como una fachada para identificar las casas que pueden ser robadas mientras los dueños no están. Si usted ve este pick up sospechoso, o se acercan a ofrecerle servicios de jardinería, o cualquier otra cosa sospechosa, tome una foto del pick up y la placa. Y llame al 104 o 720-2145 En particular, usted necesita obtener cédulas de cualquier trabajador en su propiedad. Y tenga precaución de personas tatuadas que pueden pertenecer a pandillas. Esto es muy importante. ¡Gracias de antemano por tu ayuda! Los ciudadanos alertas han impedido muchos casos como estos en el pasado.

Our national Diputada, Athenas Athanadasias, is working on a legislative project to establish tougher punishment for minors, maintaining the commitment to do so which she made during a public meeting last November.

The beach communities, centered on Coronado and stretching to Santa Clara in the west and Valle Anton to the north, and San Carlos in the east, have seen more than their share of violent crime emanating from their close connection to Panama City. Several extremely violent robberies, some involving Boquete residents, deeply affected the residents. In 2013, working with the new Rodny hotline service in Boquete, T. Rob Brown took the lead in founding what is now the Panama Helpline. Based on the same technology and methodology of Rodny Direct and with training from Rodny, both organizations are founding members of what is becoming the Panama Helpline Network. After innumerable feel-good meetings with the police and officials, the residents and Panama Helpline took matters into its own hands. Their story is apocryphal for us here in Chiriqui. It is presented here complete in the hopes that it will inspire those among us who will not accept the tyranny of crime in our community.

Cross posted from the Dr. Sleepwell web site www.sleepwellpanama.com This is one of a series of articles introducing Dr. Sleepwell's new approach to healthy, preventive security Dr. Sleepwelll knows that the community wants and needs accurate accounts of crimes that are committed and he does his best with his limited resources. But just reporting on crimes is not enough. The Doc talks about “investigating” crimes, but he is not the police and has no capability or interest in chasing criminals. It’s a necessary job and he appreciates and supports the police, but his role is not to find out who did what, but how and why they did it. While we all agree that the police forces need to be beefed up and incarceration made a deterrent with teeth. However, no matter how many malientes are arrested, there will always be more. Even at their most effective, police can only reduce the statistical probability of crime - no police anywhere in the world can guarantee your personal safety - you are not a statistic - you are a real person whose life can be ruined by crime - unless you act to protect yourself. Only by understanding HOW and WHY crimes are committed do we have a real chance of preventing each one of us from becoming a victim in the future. Over the last five years, Dr. Sleepwell has conducted what he calls “forensic investigations” of most significant crimes in and around Boquete, and some farther away. He studies every detail of how the crime was committed - which windows did they try to open - how did they ultimately get in - what did they do once inside. He has a large, and unfortunately growing, database of information about how crimes are committed - and how to prevent them. In recent years he has used this information to help individual residents improve their security. However, the prospect of a possible crime epidemic has convinced him to open a free public clinic in order to get this information to the maximum number of people as quickly as possible and hopefully stem the epidemic before it overwhelms our communities. When a serious crime is committed, we naturally feel sorry for the victims, as we should. Many are embarrassed by the obvious security flaws that were exploited by opportunistic criminals. However, the Doc has been most gratified that virtually every victim also understands the greater community benefit of a frank and non-judgemental (and non-personal) discussion in order to prevent others from becoming victims themselves. The WHY of crime is really very simple - 90% of the crime against expats is economic. Just with that understanding, we can make individual lifestyle changes that in the long run reduce crime for the entire community. If everyone simply hid their valuable jewelry and put in simple intrusion alarms, the attractiveness of our community would drop in the eyes of the criminals. Many small steps add up to a healthy, secure life style in Panama. By understanding what is stolen and how, we can take steps to choke off the economic desirability of coming to our town or indeed, to your house. That’s the new slant on crime reporting. copyright 2015, Mark Heyer

This gathering is to protest ALL of the recent crimes in Chiriqui in which juveniles participate! The laws must change to recognize that, even though these are young people, they must be held accountable for their crimes...ESPECIALLY murder and attempted murder! SECURITY MEETING - OCT 9 at 5.00pm at the Potrerillos cruce park !!! A security meeting will be held TODAY at 5.00 pm in the Parque Surtapec (little park at the Potrerillos cruce/crossing)...The Mayor from Dolega, the representantes,police and all interested public are invited. Please put this out to all of our friends and neighbors. This affects everyone, not just Potrerillos residents. The officials and police are responding to calls and outcry from the public. They know something has to be done. PLEASE show up in if you can and bring some of your workers.So everybody knows about this. I would ask anyone with media contacts to get this out to them as well. Gracias all.