With him, that makes three. The man—whose name has not been released—was arrested last Sunday at Tocumen International Airport upon his return to the country. He will be brought before a judge on Tuesday for the formalization of his arrest and the formal charging of offenses. The investigation reveals that the arrested man used the social network TikTok to contact young Panamanians to whom he allegedly offered money to participate in the Russia-Ukraine war.
A young man from Chiriquí is accused of being recruited under false pretenses to participate in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has already secured charges and provisional detention for two individuals for the crime of human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation. They are Mario Brooks and Efraín Almengor. Both also recruited victims through social media. Brooks and Almengor remain in provisional detention while the Public Prosecutor’s Office concludes its investigations. Foreign Minister Javier Martínez Acha estimated last week that there are about 20 Panamanians serving in the Russian troops and about 10 in the Ukrainian troops. At least one Panamanian has died.
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