Panama has been pointed out in international forums as a platform for illicit trade. Customs Director Soraya Valdivieso clarified that this involves a minority, and more than 90% of companies in the Colón Free Zone (ZLC) operate with high standards and rigor. All cases are already part of legal processes in the judicial system, so no further details have been disclosed. “They would leave with a DMCE —Electronic Declaration of Commercial Movement from the ZLC—, cross the border with another, and arrive at their destination with a different one,” she detailed. The lack of controls has had broad impacts. The value of the cargo exceeds 1.3 million dollars (CIF). In the operation, named Río, authorities used the Re-export and Export Declaration, implemented since April 1, which, according to Customs, allows for traceability of goods from the Colón Free Zone (ZLC). The initial perception that in 2025 the networks moving this type of merchandise from Colón had been dismantled contrasts with new evidence showing the system still has vulnerable entry and exit points. Indicators of activity persist, but on a smaller scale. Nearly all cigarettes circulating in Panama in 2025 were illegal. “It is not a document with which you can support your merchandise abroad. It is a commercial, not customs, document and it is also alterable,” Valdivieso stated. The new system or module should not represent an additional cost for the State, as it resumed a project paid for in 2018 that was “sleeping the eternal sleep.” Of the 58 fields the declaration requires, Customs managed to homologate the information so the system automatically drags the data from the DMCE that companies already use, leaving 18 fields for user confirmation, mainly regarding rules of origin. The norm, applied as of April 1, is now on a four-month extension for those who are not in compliance. “But we cannot allow a few to damage Panama's image,” she stressed, while mentioning the joint work with the free zone administration and entrepreneurs who demand that controls be exercised to preserve an important platform for regional trade. In the interview, she addressed this issue in the context of the launch of the new digital requirement for operations in the ZLC, which, in her words, seeks to close historical gaps in merchandise control after detecting practices linked to smuggling, counterfeiting, and possible money laundering. With the re-export and export declaration, the figures must exactly match the original DMCE. Traceability will allow for real statistics on the movement of goods. This has had effects on the local market, where the lesser availability of the product has made the counterfeit pack more expensive, going from around $1.00 to $3.00. “There are companies that do things right, but there are others that do not want us to know what they are moving,” Valdivieso affirmed, referring to the cases detected in the free zone and outside of it. Fraud has been detected, especially in goods such as cell phones; phantom companies used for irregular operations; and trafficking of chemical precursors, used in drug manufacturing, she explained. Alerts include non-traditional sectors, such as gold trade, where there are currently investigations. Unlike the DMCE, the new declaration creates a digital database that cannot be modified, providing reliable and real-time information to bodies such as the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF), she stated. The critical problem of the DMCE is its geographical limitation. Although these provisions are part of a general customs modernization strategy, the first phase of implementation focuses on ZLC operations, after 15 years of the document not being required. Confirmation came the next day. On Friday, on the Panama-Colón highway, the Customs Prevention and Enforcement Directorate retained a 55-foot van with 1,641 bales of smuggled cigarettes with the apparent destination of a duty-free in Chiriquí. The driver's documentation declared tarps, orthopedic blankets, motorcycle tires, fan parts, and curtains, while the inspection revealed only cigarettes of unauthorized brands in the country, from China and India. After this period, there will be no more flexibility: “If they do not register, they cannot move their cargo from the ZLC.” The deadline is extended until August 2026. Behind that figure—97%—there is not only tax evasion, but a vulnerable system that, according to the National Customs Directorate, has also served for smuggling and possible money laundering schemes. While Customs Director Soraya Valdivieso was speaking last Thursday with La Prensa about smuggling and the brakes they are trying to impose, at some point in the system a cargo was already being packed.
