R 192135Z OCT 09 FM AMEMBASSY PANAMA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3866 S E C R E T PANAMA 000777 SUBJECT: PANAMANIAN INTEL DIRECTOR CONFRONTS DEA

REF: PANAMA 639 Classified By: Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ------Summary ------1. (S//NF) Olmedo Alfaro, Executive Secretary of the Council of Public Security and National Defense (Consejo), engaged in two tense encounters with DEA personnel last week, indicating continued tension over the Embassy decision to remove the Matador judicialized wiretap program from the control of the Consejo and put it entirely under the control of the Attorney General. After berating DEA and FBI agents, Alfaro declared that he did not need DEA because other USG agencies would give him what he needed. Alfaro's attitude, together with an apparent attempt to place an un-vetted officer on the DEA Sensitive Investigations Unit (SIU), indicate that members of Martinelli's security team are nervous about placing our judicialized wiretap

program under the Attorney General's oversight. ----------------I Don't Need You! ----------------2. (S//NF) On October 7 a DEA agent and a TDY FBI agent who were conducting routine activities in the Matador wireroom (located on the Consejo office complex and still under the control of Consejo) were called into Alfaro's office and told, in a disrespectful tone, that "we know why they fired your boss! How are we supposed to trust you!" (Note: Country DEA attach departed Post two weeks ago for personal reasons. End Note.) He went on to say, "I don't care about DEA because the CIA will give me everything I need." He further complained about delayed payments from DEA for the wireroom. Alfaro then announced, "if you play hardball with us, we will play hardball with you." Alfaro then calmed down, and apologized for his outburst, saying he needed to "vent." --------------------But Let's Make a Deal --------------------3. (S//NF) Two days later, Alfaro called the DEA agent in charge of Matador into his office to discuss Matador. Alfaro suggested that the dispute over Matador had been a personal problem with the previous attach, and that now that he was gone, Consejo and DEA should "sit down and work out a

deal." Alfaro proposed that the first element of the deal be that DEA accept his original choice as wireroom supervisor. (Note: Consejo's firing of the long time Consejo wireroom supervisor, and attempt to impose an unknown officer was the beginning of the crisis over th Matador program. End Note.) He went on to insist that DEA give him an access card to the wireroom. The DEA agent explained that Consejo held all the access cards and he could go in whenever he wanted, but Alfaro insisted that DEA give him a card, "as an act of confidence." --------------SIU Shenanigans --------------4. (S//NF) In the same week, the Panamanian National Police officer who serves as deputy head of the DEA SIU, Capt. XXXXXXXXXXXX, received a phone call from Sub-Commissioner Carrillo, his supervisor and the Director of the Judicial Investigative Police (DIJ), telling him that he was sending an officer to incorporate into the unit, assuring him that he had already passed local vetting, and was all right (Note: No PNP officers may join the SIU until they have been polygraphed and vetted by DEA. This officer had not been. End note.) ------Comment -------

5. (S//NF) Alfaro's actions are increasingly unpredictable. DEA has always had excellent relationships with Consejo and all Panamanian law enforcement agencies, and routinely allows Panamanian law enforcement agencies and the GOP to take credit for huge drug seizures which are actually the work of DEA. Alfaro seems to give no importance to the long-standing close ties to USG partners, and to be entirely fixated on keeping control over the equipment used in the judicialized Matador program. Post has taken an irrevocable decision to move the Matador program from its present physical location on the Consejo grounds, and to put it entirely under the control of the Attorney General at a location controlled by her. Vice President and Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Varela has been informed of this decision, and he told the Ambassador that he had informed Alfaro and Minister of Government and Justice Jose Raul Mulino and would inform President Martinelli soon. 6. (S//NF) Alfaro's comments on not needing the DEA may indicate that the GOP now realizes it cannot use Matador for political espionage, especially when taken together with the increasing contact between the GOP and Israeli security companies. The government's concern that Matador not be turned over to the A/G, however, and the attempt to place an officer in the SIU without coordination, may indicate a shift in concerns from finding dirt on others to protecting themselves. There are members of the government with suspected ties to drug trafficking, and there is no reason to believe there will be fewer acts of corruption in this government than in any past government. By

asking to renegotiate the Matador deal, and un-vetted officers in the SIU, the GOP trying to keep track of DEA activities to themselves from getting caught up in investigation. STEPHENSON

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