Word: panama
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...like a strategic dichotomy, an either-or choice that the U.S. must make now and live with for decades. Instead, the chiefs want to ; keep all options open. When necessary, they want the U.S. to be the Lone Ranger who can go after a bandido like Manuel Noriega of Panama. But whenever possible, they would prefer to play the sheriff who leads a posse against the likes of Saddam Hussein...
...replaced the corrupt army-officer corps loyal to Noriega, is getting $20 million worth of U.S. training and equipment. Thanks to an accord reached last year, American investigators have access to secret Panamanian bank records whenever they suspect that accounts are being used to launder drug money. Now that Panama requires local banks to file meticulous reports on large deposits of cash, the cartels are no longer able to make millions of dollars disappear into a financial black hole. Efforts to set up similar laundering systems in Luxembourg and Uruguay have been thwarted, and some Latin dealers have been forced...
Meanwhile, the number of drug seizures in Panama has more than doubled: nine tons of cocaine were intercepted in 1991, compared with just under four tons the previous year. Intensified police surveillance has also spelled bad news for those who assist the cartels: in the first three months of 1992, 227 traffickers were arrested, in contrast to 102 in the same period a year...
Some government critics say the statistics merely prove that the country remains a popular pipeline to the American drug market. In Noriega's day, Colombian cartels -- which are responsible for nearly all the cocaine sold in the U.S. -- regularly used neighboring Panama for back-door operations. But DEA officials dispute that view, arguing that the increased seizures are the result of successful sting operations. Once undercover agents infiltrate a drug ring, the agency often tries to arrange a delivery in Panama City, where the local police force breaks up the deal...
...DRUGS: Panama Just Says...