A court in Panama has sentenced a Colombian citizen and another Ecuadorian to 110 months in prison each for trafficking 597.7 kilograms of cocaine, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP, Public Prosecutor’s Office) reported on Friday.

According to judicial information, the Colombian Jeison Moreno Aguirre and the Ecuadorian Alberth Antonio Angulo Echeverría have been convicted under a criminal agreement for the crime of international drug trafficking.

Both were captured last Wednesday in Punta Burica, on the Pacific coast of western Chiriquí province, in a boat containing 597.7 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride, the prosecutor’s office said.

As an accessory sentence, the judge in the case “established the forfeiture of the boat, with two 90 horsepower engines and other belongings found during the event,” the court information added.

Panama is used as a bridge for drugs produced in South America whose main destination is the United States, the largest consumer of cocaine in the world, as well as Europe.

So far this year, Panamanian state security forces have seized more than 34 tons of illegal substances and detained 170 people, including 116 Panamanians and 54 foreign nationals, the Ministry of Public Security reported this week.

Panama authorities seized the historic figure of 138.41 tons of drugs in 2022, of which 108.82 tons were cocaine.