The Panama Maritime Chamber (CMP) requested this Wednesday that the authorities clarify the alleged link between one of its directors, who has already been separated from his post, and a shipment of 13.5 tons of cocaine seized on Monday in the Pacific waters of the Central American country. According to the Panamanian digital medium Foco, the tugboat where the shipment was found, named Oceanic Tug, is the property of the company Dolphin Tugs, which belongs to Pablo Torres, a CMP director. In a statement that does not specify any names, the guild that groups Panamanian maritime, logistics, and port sector companies informed that “said member has decided to voluntarily separate from his position for personal reasons while the facts are clarified, a decision that the Board of Directors welcomes with respect, valuing his responsible and prudent attitude”. The Maritime Chamber urged “the competent authorities to carry out all necessary investigations with the greatest transparency, objectivity, and celerity, to clarify the facts and safeguard confidence in the institutions”. Torres, for his part, denied that he maintains “any ownership, operational, administrative, or representation relationship” with the vessel in question, “nor with the activities or facts currently mentioned,” since “it was sold on March 22, 2023, complying with all corresponding legal formalities”. The vessel “was removed from the Public Registry of Vessels of Panama, a procedure that is recorded in the official files of the Panama Maritime Authority through its final deregistration,” affirmed Torres in a statement released this Wednesday on social networks. RESIGNATION However, Torres decided to resign from the Panama Maritime Chamber after his firm Stward Inc. MAY BE OF INTEREST Director resigns and Maritime Chamber demands clarity in the narco-boat case November 12, 2025 8 Tocumen Airport officials arrested for moving drugs between suitcases November 12, 2025 HAVE YOU SEEN IT? The new AMP administration, under Luis Roquebert, has already reviewed and canceled several of those contracts. $200 MILLION COCAINE Panamanian authorities reported on Tuesday the historic seizure of 13,508 kilos of cocaine, with a street value of about $200 million, on a tugboat intercepted in Panama Pacific waters heading to North America from Colombia. During this operation, carried out on Monday, 10 nationals of Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Colombia were captured, who have already been charged with international drug trafficking and are in preventive detention, according to local media. Intelligence information indicates that the vessel had left “from the Juradó area,” in Colombia, and was heading “towards Mexico, which obviously generates a route to the United States,” said the Senior Prosecutor for Drugs, Julio Villarreal, at a press conference. Panama is a transit country for drugs produced in South America destined for the United States—the world's largest consumer of cocaine—and Europe. Urgent call issued to locate missing person in Tinajitas November 12, 2025 Alert at a school in La Chorrera: Fistfights between students are on the rise November 12, 2025 Dismantled in La Chorrera: Phishing gang that hacked WhatsApp accounts November 12, 2025 The company would have connections with Noriel Araúz and Vice President José Gabriel Carrizo, which today raises suspicions. Decomposed about 80 tons of illicit substances in 2024, according to official data.
