All photographs from La Prensa
At the end of June 2006, a man walked into the offices of the Panamanian Prosecutors to alert the authotities of a Colombian national arriving in Panama on July 1st to coordinate the movement of drugs through Panama. Drug Prosecutor Javier Caraballo alerted Franklin Brewster at his "Sensitive Unit". This unit had the role of investigating high profile drug cases and it was the link between Panama and the DEA. Detective Brewster met the informant, a taxi driver, and assigned the case to detectives Gioconda Veliz and Kenneth Brown. Ironically, the operation was named "Operation Laboratory". After the death of Inspector Brewster this taxi driver turns out to be the same protected witness used by the prosecutors and the FBI to accuse detectives Veliz and Brown of homicide by poisoning his food. Prosecutor Luis Martinez tried to corroborate the information coming from this informat and the Chief of the Judiciary Police Jaime Jácome in Panama advised him that this person had not produced any positive results for them in the past. Despite this warning, Prosecutor Martinez used this person´s statements to file murder charges against the two agents. As it turned out, the witness never witnessed anything.
His statement was: that he "was told by Carol Restrepo that she knew that Brewster was going to be killed with a poison but she didn´t know the person´s name". Carol Restrepo was a Colombian prostitute who said the poison was going to be delivered to Veliz and Brown by the Colombian capo in exchange of $500,000. This of course has no weight, states Rolando Rodriguez, attorney for agent Veliz. The name does not appear in Colombia´s registry. This person does not exist and the taxi driver never came forward as a witness in the case.
When the alleged drug trafficker arrived at the Panama airport, detective Veliz confirmed his arrival with a passenger list and was ready to pass on the passenger´s name to her contact to follow the Colombian once he left the airport. The passenger was swift and evaded them. Her defense attorney informed the prosecutors that there was a misunderstanding with the man´s last names on the part of the contact at the airport. For the prosecutor, this makes Gioconda Veliz a participant in the crime by hiding the Colombian´s personal information.
Three days later Franklin Brewster is poisoned and the protected witness stated that he could not meet the Colombian because he didn´t have the back up of the detectives assigned to the case. This, according to the prosecutor "places them in a position of having information to consumate their criminal act".
Further investigation determined that there were no out of the ordinary calls on the phone logs of Veliz or Brown, no meetings with other persons and the Financial Analysis Unit in Panama did not discover any iregularities in their finances. There were no elements to corroborate his story.
The saga of the protected witness continued when he thought he overheard a person saying that Veliz and Brown had stolen two million dollars during an operation called "Operation Ojo de Agua". The name was clarified later by Drug Prosecutors since there was an "Operation Alamo ll" in the area of Ojo de Agua in Panama. The detectives participated in this operation but only in the data gathering stage at the beginning of the operation. They collected information about the company involved. This information was later given to the National Police who conducted the investigation and executed the raid on the company. According to Panamanian Law, there´s no legality about a witness whose statements are based on what he heard from a third person. (Article 920 of the Judiciary Code)
The day after Franklin Brewster was taken to the hospital, the place was not treated as a crime scene. The building was not sealed and all employees of the Unit were allowed to go to work. An attack on a special drug Unit was taken this lightly regarding security issues. This is supposed to be an FBI investigation in search of forensic evidence. To most people familiar with criminal investigations in Panama, it seemed more like a joke. On August 17th, more than a month after the event, Inspector Brewster´s car was examined but only personal items were taken from the vehicle. There are no indications that a forensic examination was conducted of the inside of the car. Why should they conduct any further inquires? The FBI and the DEA already solved the crime.
Agents Veliz and Brown spent 2 years in jail accused of murder by poisoning a food that nobody ever knew if it was tampered with. The first persons who mentioned poisoned food were the FBI and DEA agents on July 3rd. They weren´t there. They had no idea of Franklin Brewster´s movements that day. Yet, they were already accusing Veliz and Brown of poisoning the food since hour one.
At the autopsy in Panama, US Army Pathologist Abubark Marzovik participated in the collection of tissue and fluid samples. It has been reported by La Prensa Newspaper (August 7th 2006) that different tissues were sent to the FBI from this autopsy: brain, lungs kidneys, intestines and body fat as well as blood, urine, vitreous fluid and bile which along with the initial blood samples and his clothes, were sent to the FBI laboratory. The FBI report only mentions analysis of blood and gastric fluids. Were the other samples analyzed? There´s no answer to this question in the case file. It was announced that it would take 15 days for the FBI to give their results.
By July 18th, the deadline for the arrival of the results in Panama, the Press was told that US authorities had informed that they were having difficulties comparing their results to more than 3,000 insecticides in the market. Their results show only the presence of the drugs given at the Hospital: Atropine, Oxime and of course, Lidocaine. It also reads "Negative for organophosphates". Why was the FBI Toxicologist Madeline Montgomery comparing medical drugs to 3,000 insecticides? What procedure and methodology was she using for this procedure? Obviously, a blatant lie.
See La Prensa. August 7th 2006
His statement was: that he "was told by Carol Restrepo that she knew that Brewster was going to be killed with a poison but she didn´t know the person´s name". Carol Restrepo was a Colombian prostitute who said the poison was going to be delivered to Veliz and Brown by the Colombian capo in exchange of $500,000. This of course has no weight, states Rolando Rodriguez, attorney for agent Veliz. The name does not appear in Colombia´s registry. This person does not exist and the taxi driver never came forward as a witness in the case.
When the alleged drug trafficker arrived at the Panama airport, detective Veliz confirmed his arrival with a passenger list and was ready to pass on the passenger´s name to her contact to follow the Colombian once he left the airport. The passenger was swift and evaded them. Her defense attorney informed the prosecutors that there was a misunderstanding with the man´s last names on the part of the contact at the airport. For the prosecutor, this makes Gioconda Veliz a participant in the crime by hiding the Colombian´s personal information.
Three days later Franklin Brewster is poisoned and the protected witness stated that he could not meet the Colombian because he didn´t have the back up of the detectives assigned to the case. This, according to the prosecutor "places them in a position of having information to consumate their criminal act".
Further investigation determined that there were no out of the ordinary calls on the phone logs of Veliz or Brown, no meetings with other persons and the Financial Analysis Unit in Panama did not discover any iregularities in their finances. There were no elements to corroborate his story.
The saga of the protected witness continued when he thought he overheard a person saying that Veliz and Brown had stolen two million dollars during an operation called "Operation Ojo de Agua". The name was clarified later by Drug Prosecutors since there was an "Operation Alamo ll" in the area of Ojo de Agua in Panama. The detectives participated in this operation but only in the data gathering stage at the beginning of the operation. They collected information about the company involved. This information was later given to the National Police who conducted the investigation and executed the raid on the company. According to Panamanian Law, there´s no legality about a witness whose statements are based on what he heard from a third person. (Article 920 of the Judiciary Code)
The day after Franklin Brewster was taken to the hospital, the place was not treated as a crime scene. The building was not sealed and all employees of the Unit were allowed to go to work. An attack on a special drug Unit was taken this lightly regarding security issues. This is supposed to be an FBI investigation in search of forensic evidence. To most people familiar with criminal investigations in Panama, it seemed more like a joke. On August 17th, more than a month after the event, Inspector Brewster´s car was examined but only personal items were taken from the vehicle. There are no indications that a forensic examination was conducted of the inside of the car. Why should they conduct any further inquires? The FBI and the DEA already solved the crime.
Agents Veliz and Brown spent 2 years in jail accused of murder by poisoning a food that nobody ever knew if it was tampered with. The first persons who mentioned poisoned food were the FBI and DEA agents on July 3rd. They weren´t there. They had no idea of Franklin Brewster´s movements that day. Yet, they were already accusing Veliz and Brown of poisoning the food since hour one.
At the autopsy in Panama, US Army Pathologist Abubark Marzovik participated in the collection of tissue and fluid samples. It has been reported by La Prensa Newspaper (August 7th 2006) that different tissues were sent to the FBI from this autopsy: brain, lungs kidneys, intestines and body fat as well as blood, urine, vitreous fluid and bile which along with the initial blood samples and his clothes, were sent to the FBI laboratory. The FBI report only mentions analysis of blood and gastric fluids. Were the other samples analyzed? There´s no answer to this question in the case file. It was announced that it would take 15 days for the FBI to give their results.
By July 18th, the deadline for the arrival of the results in Panama, the Press was told that US authorities had informed that they were having difficulties comparing their results to more than 3,000 insecticides in the market. Their results show only the presence of the drugs given at the Hospital: Atropine, Oxime and of course, Lidocaine. It also reads "Negative for organophosphates". Why was the FBI Toxicologist Madeline Montgomery comparing medical drugs to 3,000 insecticides? What procedure and methodology was she using for this procedure? Obviously, a blatant lie.
See La Prensa. August 7th 2006
