It is no secret to anyone that drug trafficking has an important presence in Panama, as a result of the trafficking itself and the related activities involved, such as the participation of locally organized groups that are dedicated to selling, transporting, and guarding drugs. In recent months, the security forces of Panama - with the intercession of international intelligence agencies - have dealt certain blows to these organizations, their operations, and their members. These actions go to the throat of the businesses of common criminals, but it is not a secret either that these groups have infiltrated the Judicial Branch, including the Legislative, according to a multiplicity of intelligence sources, local and foreign, who have intimately expressed their concern about the growing penetration of dirty money in local politics and banking. The worrying thing is that they have gone very far, acceding to a State body that makes - or does not make - laws, which facilitates and even promotes these activities that leave millions, used, among other things, to weaken our institutions. It is necessary to reach higher to end a scourge that already affects, even, national security. LA PRENSA, Jul. 6.