Latin America and the Caribbean
Source tier A. Conventions checked 2026-07-29.
Drug and firearms law in Panama: statutes on record and in force
Panama, in Latin America and the Caribbean, is party to all four of the instruments tracked here, the last of them since 2005. It appears on neither FATF list. Its legislation on record runs to 2 confirmed instruments, the earliest from 1993. Where a field could not be sourced it is reported as unsourced rather than left to be inferred.
International framework
Panama is bound by all four instruments this dataset tracks, the earliest from 1994 and the most recent from 2005.
| Instrument | Adopted | Ratified or acceded | Depositary reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 Convention | 1988 | 13 Jan 1994 | Chapter VI-19 |
| UNTOC | 2000 | 18 Aug 2004 | Chapter XVIII-12 |
| UNCAC | 2003 | 23 Sep 2005 | Chapter XVIII-14 |
| Firearms Protocol | 2001 | 18 Aug 2004 | Chapter XVIII-12-c |
What each instrument obliges a party to do is set out once, per instrument, in the conventions reference. The dates above are what is specific to Panama: they are the points from which each obligation began to bind, taken from the depositary's own status tables.
National legislation
These are the instruments an official source confirms for Panama. The list is what could be cited, not necessarily everything in force.
Law 23 — A principal instrument in its own right, confirmed on the register named below; its subject matter is not stated on the face of its title. Confirmed against the UNODC legal library, checked 2026-07-30.
LEY-20-DE-1993-G.O.-22429.pdf — A principal instrument in its own right, confirmed on the register named below; its subject matter is not stated on the face of its title. Confirmed against ministeriopublico.gob.pa, checked 2026-07-30.
Enforcement authorities
2 bodies are named in the record for Panama, each confirmed on Panama's own government domain. A named body is not the same as an operative one, but it establishes where the mandate sits — and a mandate no institution holds is the gap that treaty coverage cannot close.
| Body | Function | Confirmed on |
|---|---|---|
| Consejo de Seguridad Nacional | named in the legislation | minseg.gob.pa |
| Servicio Nacional | named in the legislation | migracion.gob.pa |
Ratification sequence
The dates below are worth reading as a sequence rather than as a set. Panama came to these instruments over 11 years, beginning with the 1988 Convention in 1994 and ending with the UNCAC in 2005. Measured against each instrument's own adoption, the shortest gap was the UNCAC at 2 years, the longest the 1988 Convention at 6.
Panama became a party to the 1988 Convention in 1994, 6 years after it was adopted — slower than the median lag of 5 years across this dataset.
Between the first date and the last, the framework binding this jurisdiction was incomplete in specific ways. For the 10 years between 1994 and 2004, Panama was bound by the 1988 Convention but not yet by the UNTOC, the Firearms Protocol or the UNCAC. An obligation that arrives late does not reach conduct that took place before it, which is why the sequence matters to a prosecutor and not only to a chronology.
On coverage, Panama is one of 81 jurisdiction s here party to 4 of the four, against 81 party to all four. Latin America and the Caribbean accounts for 33 of the records here; 3 of them carry a current monitoring listing.
Position on the trafficking corridors
Panama sits on the central american isthmus, one of the six corridors profiled here. The corridor is only as traceable as its weakest documented leg, and this is the documentation for this one.
The Central American isthmus — 9 jurisdictions, carrying cocaine. The legs either side of Panama in the reporting are Colombia and Costa Rica. Across the corridor as a whole, 7 of the 9 legs are party to all four instruments, 2 sit outside the Firearms Protocol, every leg carries a confirmed national instrument , and none is under increased monitoring. Panama clears all three of those checks. The profile for this corridor compares all of its legs on the same three checks.
Financial-crime monitoring
As of the FATF plenary statements of 2026-06-19, Panama is recorded as Not listed . Nothing here is a finding about Panama's financial controls; it records only that neither statement names it. The process is described on the FATF grey list tracker.
Questions about drug and firearms law in Panama
Which drug-control conventions has Panama ratified?
All four: the 1988 Convention on 13 Jan 1994, the UNTOC on 18 Aug 2004, the UNCAC on 23 Sep 2005, the Firearms Protocol on 18 Aug 2004.
Is Panama on the FATF grey list?
No. Panama appears on neither the increased-monitoring list nor the call-for-action list in the FATF statements of 19 June 2026.
What national drug legislation is on record for Panama?
Law 23, confirmed against the UNODC legal library; LEY-20-DE-1993-G.O.-22429.pdf, confirmed against ministeriopublico.gob.pa.
Which register confirms the legislation on this page?
Each instrument names its own. For Panama that is the UNODC legal library, ministeriopublico.gob.pa. The entries link straight to the document, so the wording can be checked rather than taken on trust.
What is source tier A, and why is this record in it?
Tier A means a national instrument has been confirmed against an official register — for Panama, 2 of them. The treaty dates and the listing status are separately sourced, so all three layers of this record carry a citation.
Why does the ratification date matter?
The date is the point from which the obligations bind. Panama's earliest of these commitments dates from 1994, its most recent from 2005; the gap between them is a rough measure of how long the framework took to assemble.
Sources
- Ratification dates: United Nations Treaty Collection, depositary status tables (chapters VI-19, XVIII-12, XVIII-14, XVIII-12-c). Checked 2026-07-29.
- Listing status: FATF, Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring and High-Risk Jurisdictions subject to a Call for Action, 2026-06-19.
- Law 23: the UNODC legal library, checked 2026-07-30.
- LEY-20-DE-1993-G.O.-22429.pdf: ministeriopublico.gob.pa, checked 2026-07-30.