Operation Panama Express is a long-running Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), comprising participants from the

Coast Guard Investigative Service The Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) is a division of the United States Coast Guard that investigates crimes where the U.S. Coast Guard has an interest. It is composed of civilian ( GS-1811), active duty, reserve enlisted, and warrant o ...

, the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit Illegal drug trade, drug trafficking a ...

, and the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. According to a March 2006 Congressional testimony by DEA Chief of Operations Michael Braun, Operation Panama Express has resulted in the seizure of 350 metric tons (392 tons) of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

, and the arrests of 1,107 individuals. The OCDETF is based in

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, and focuses primarily on interrupting cocaine shipments en route from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

—especially

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. On September 13, 2008, the U.S. Coast Guard captured a

narco submarine A narco-submarine (also called a drug sub or narco-sub) is a type of custom Seakeeping, ocean-going, Marine propulsion, self-propelled, semi-submersible or fully-submersible vessel built by (or for) drug smugglers. Newer semi-submersibles are ...

carrying approximately seven tons of cocaine, located about west of

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. The 59-foot-long, steel and fiberglass craft was detected by a

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

aircraft as part of Operation Panama Express.

Joaquin Mario Valencia-Trujillo

The most notable individual arrested as a result of Operation Panama Express is Colombian Cali cartel kingpin Joaquin Mario Valencia-Trujillo. Valencia was arrested on January 31, 2003 in Bogota, Colombia, and extradited in 2004 to the United States. The lead witness in Valencia's trial was Jose Castrillon-Henao, a former Cali cartel maritime smuggling chief who became an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

informant in 1999. Valencia was sentenced to a prison term of 40 years, and ordered to forfeit $110 million.

References

External links

Congressional Testimony by Michael Braun (March 30, 2006)April 16, 2005 Cocaine Seizure detailed in Coast Guard Magazine (April 27, 2005)
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071010163110/http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=104&sid=728605 WTOP: "Testimony Begins in Alleged Kingpin Trial" (July 10, 2006)br>''The Tampa Tribune'': "Trial Offers 'Miami Vice' Scenario" (July 5, 2006)
* ttp://www.sptimes.com/2006/07/09/Tampabay/Drug_trial_could_shak.shtml ''The St. Petersburg Times'': "Drug Trial Could Shake Colombia" (July 9, 2006) {{DEFAULTSORT:Panama Express, Operation Drug Enforcement Administration operations Law enforcement operations against organized crime in the United States

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...