Member of Panamanian first lady's security team arrested

The man, who worked as a courier, was arrested Monday along with several other people in Don Bosco, located east of Panama City, "while driving a white Ford Explorer" that had been assigned to him, the Communications Secretariat said.

President Ricardo Martinelli has ordered the director of his security unit to strengthen the vetting process to prevent a repeat of the situation, the secretariat said in a statement.

"This is an important security agency and, as in other parts of the world, there should be procedures in place that allow us to permanently clean up the agency of bad units and, when they are detected, the full weight of the law should come down on them," the president said.