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split the country like its world-famous canal.

Brewster (right) and Candanedo were instrumental in the US-led Twin Oceans investigation that resulted in the capture in May in Brazil of Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Rayo Montano. Experts here say that the chaos gripping Panama is linked to his arrest.

"Montano can't have operated in isolation," one investigator said. "An empire that size needs to have had government officials and bankers on the payroll."

Montano shifted more than 70 tons of coke to the US and Mexico through the 1990s. He had his own navy and a submarine, and lived in Dr No style, surrounded by his yachts and artwork on a picturesque island in the Caribbean.

Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI officials from the US arrived in Panama this week - officially - to

investigate Brewster's murder. Many believe they are bound to unravel links between Montano and top Panamanian officials.

Chaos in the anti-drugs forces in Panama is nothing new. Candanedo's predecessor left when he was caught with a ton of coke in his truck. He was stupid enough to use his work phone to liaise with the Colombian mafia. Another drug prosecutor was recently sacked for auctioning off hundreds of cows seized in an investigation.

But in the year that Panama is trying to present an image of itself as a trustworthy, responsible state, as it tries to find part-funding for an ambitious $5.25 billion canal expansion, this messy tale of murder and corruption could just be the end of the line for the country's credibility.

FIRST POSTED JULY 26, 2006
Cocaine galore on Panama's coast
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