A “most wanted” captured in Trump Tower
Updated: Nov 3, 2019
DAVID VITERI, one of Panama’s “most wanted” criminals with a $20,000 reward offered for his capture, is back behind bars. He was captured in the Trump Tower in Punta Pacifica, at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 30 November after a two-year intelligence tracking operation.
He is now in pre-trial detention in the DIJ in Ancon, where he is not likely to enjoy the “comforts” of his previous detention. He will appear in court on 30 January to face attempted homicide charges in a case dating back eight years and some other charges.
The Director-General of the National Police, Omar Pinzón, confirmed that at the time of his arrest, Viteri was armed with a Glock pistol and cartridge clips.
Pinzón said that Viteri had been moving in different sectors of Panama City.
High living in La Joya: Viteri’s colourful past includes service as a US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) informant who reportedly collected $300 for each confiscated kilo of drugs, and at one time, while in La Joya prison, he “lived like a king” with a fully equipped kitchen, TV, and air conditioning.
Viteri, known in the underworld as El Padre, seems to have led a charmed life. He was linked in 2006 to an infamous “drug snatch”—one gang stealing a drug shipment from another gang.
In 2008, he obtained a provisional dismissal by the First Criminal Court for the alleged crime of money laundering.
Earlier he had escaped an assassination attempt on Via Espana by the “Pentagon” gang working for the Cali Cartel. His companion, Johnny Cordova Pozo, was killed.
While working for the DEA, he also provided information to the former Technical Judicial Police and the Drug Prosecutor’s Office, according to media reports.
He is now their guest at the DIJ headquarters in Ancon.
Besides Nick Tuffney being expelled from Panamá for life now, the President of the United States, Donald Trump seems to have come under the same curse with his Trump Tower project. If Nick Tuffney can lose everything in Panamá so can the President through these non-honourable Panamanian gypsies.
