A Colombian national sentenced to more than 12 years for drug trafficking in Panama escaped early Tuesday morning from the penitentiary known as La Mega Joya, the largest in the country and subjected to a “extreme security”reported the Police Headquarters, which activated a vast search operation.
“The National Police are still looking for the Colombian Cesar Tulio Sanchez Valdeswho this morning was reported as a fugitive from the La Mega Joya Prison Center, where he is serving a 150-month prison sentence for international drug trafficking offences,” the public security agency posted on social media.
The poster published by the State Police (PN) shows a photograph of the fugitive, as well as telephone numbers so that citizens can provide any information.
The commissioner of the National Police (PN), Jorge Bryan, explained on local television that between one and two o’clock this morning, the agents of the prison watchtower observed a figure “fleeing from the penitentiary center”, which it was confirmed after a review in which it was discovered that it was Sánchez Valdés.
In the Mega Joya, inaugurated in 2014 and with a capacity of 5,504 prisoners, the largest in the country according to official information, “extreme security is maintained”, said the commissioner, for which a joint investigation will be launched with the Prosecutor to find out how he escaped prisoner.
In this sense, the Directorate General of the Penitentiary System stated that “an internal verification investigation has been launched through video surveillance cameras, to determine responsibilities, in order to apply the related administrative sanctions and ask the Public Prosecutor to start a criminal investigation into the escape of César Tulio Sánchez Valdés”.
Operations are currently underway in the vicinity of the prison and in the surrounding communities to obtain the recapture of the prisoner.
A “strong search operation” is underway around the prison, involving agents of the special forces of the State Police but also of the National Border Service (Senafront), added the commissioner. EFE extension
Source: Clarin
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