A report has claimed infiltration by drugs gangs at a Panamanian port is increasing the problem of cocaine being smuggled to Europe on cargoships and container vessels.
The InSight Crime website cited a report by the La Prensa daily that said terminal staff can earn up to $10,000 per shipment they facilitate at Colon.
The traffickers are local gangs - "cuadrillas" - working in tandem with Colombian smugglers.
The gangs receive cocaine from Colombian drug mules and smuggle it into the port with the aid of insiders.
Last year, authorities in Colon arrested 330 people and seized 12 tons of cocaine, according to government figures.
But Panama is not the only country with this problem, InSight Crime reported.
A remote port along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica has seen a spike in the amount of cocaine discovered in cargo bound for Europe, it said.
And a new trafficking route has been discovered from an "antiquated" port in Brazil to the Netherlands.
