Panama: A Panamanian man who was part of a child sex trafficking network was arrested this Thursday in the district of Arraiján, Panama West province, during the implementation of the international operation Córdoba. The national was apprehended through a search and seizure operation, following an investigation that began in January 2025, when Panamanian authorities received information from their counterparts in Argentina, alerting them to the possible possession of child sexual abuse material in Panama, linked to two ongoing investigations in Argentine territory, the National Police confirmed.
Investigations carried out in Panama for the alleged commission of crimes of corruption of minors, commercial sexual exploitation and other related conduct, to the detriment of at least seven minor victims located in Argentina, made it possible to establish that the minors were initially contacted through a user on the social network Instagram and later through the WhatsApp application, using a telephone line registered in Panama.
Major Wladimir González, head of the Cybercrime Department of the Directorate of Judicial Investigation, explained that the victims of this man were being groomed, a practice through which an adult, posing as a child, asks his victims for videos or photos in which they film themselves performing acts of sexual abuse against other minors or having sexual relations to share them on the dark web, specialized in child pornography, and later extorts them with the material.
He added that technological equipment and other evidence were seized during the operation. The operation was carried out by specialized cybercrime units of the DIJ (Directorate of Judicial Investigation), intelligence units of the DNIP (National Directorate of Police Intelligence), forensic computer experts from the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, and with the support of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). During the operation, it was established that the suspect had a precautionary measure against him related to a previous investigation for the same type of crime.
