Attorney General of Panama Wants Rancho Los Toros Criminals Brought to Justice

Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN) took their concerns about unsolved crimes to the office of the Attorney General of Panama. Rob Brown, founder of NHN, Wayne Halladay, NHN Board member and Carlos Sanad Espino, Legal counsel, had a meeting with Attorney General, Ana Belfon and her executive staff. In February of this year Rancho Los Toros, a hotel and restaurant in San Carlos was violently robbed. 15 guests were tied up and terrorized for over 2 hours. The owner was beaten and the cook stabbed. In spite of hard evidence being recovered from the crime, the criminals went unpunished. In May of the same year, the hotel / restaurant was robbed again. Once again, guests were terrorized and the owner beaten.

Through the efforts of NHN, a privately funded community interest group, a private investigator and legal counsel was brought in to work with police to identify and apprehend the individuals responsible for the crimes. Their work produced 2 individuals who were brought to the San Carlos Prosecutor's office. The prosecutor questioned them as witnesses (not suspects in the crime) and then released them, even though they admitted to possessing stolen property, which in itself is a crime carrying a 2 - 5 year sentence, plus a fi

ne equal to 3 times the value of the stolen property.

Carlos Sanad Espino, legal counsel for the Rancho Los Toros victims, filed several petitions to the San Carlos Prosecutor's office requesting the Prosecutor to act diligently. The petitions went unanswered. Finally, Mr. Espino filed a lawsuit against the prosecutor for failing to do his job.

At the meeting with the Ana Belfon, Attorney General of Panama, NHN reviewed the facts in the case and the obstacles they faced with the San Carlos Prosecutor. Ms. Belfon expressed regret and promised to see due diligence done. A special investigator was immediately assigned to the case.

Ana Belfon expressed frustration with the recent budget cuts imposed on her office, the Public Ministry and said that it was not an excuse for the department not to do their job. Rob Brown of NHN spoke to how his group is working with the community to properly report crimes. He also spoke of the emergency HotLine Service which will assist members in English and Spanish during emergencies. The Attorney General was very impressed NHN's initiatives. Rob Brown expressed that NHN is willing to work with the Police and Prosecutor's office to keep the beaches free of criminal activity.

The coming weeks will reveal the fruits of the meeting.

Another encouraging piece of information that came out of the meeting, is that the San Carlos will receive its own Prosecutorial office, which will significantly improve the speed of processing criminals.