DRUG CARTEL BEHIND COCAINE SHIPMENT

MEXICO'S powerful Sinaloa drug cartel was behind the record 20-ton
cocaine shipment that was seized by the US Coast Guard off Panama's
Pacific Coast last weekend, officials have said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has called the seizure,
worth nearly $300 million (€225m), the largest ever by the Coast Guard.

The drugs were found in containers on a ship that left Guyana and
passed through the Panama Canal on March 15 on the way to the Mexican
state of Sinaloa, said Panama's top drug prosecutor, Jose Almengor.

Coast Guard officials detained 11 Mexicans and three Panamanians
during the seizure on Sunday about 32km south-east of the island of
Coiba off Panama's coast. The Mexicans will be taken to the US to
face trial, while the Panamanians will be jailed in Panama.

Mr Almengor said the Sinaloa cartel has just begun to establish
itself in Panama, which borders Colombia.

The majority of Colombia's drugs move along central America by boat
or plane and then pass through Mexico over land before they are
smuggled into the US.

Officials believe fast boats from Colombia had delivered the cocaine
to the ship after it had passed through the canal.

"The drugs didn't pass through the canal," Mr Almengor said. "That's
clear from the way it was packed in a rudimentary way."