QCOSTARICA – Some Colombian narcos (drug traffickers) tried to smuggle 4.3 tons of cocaine into Costa Rica this weekend; however, confidential information allowed the authorities to seize this important drug shipment.
According to the Policía de Control de Drogas (PCD), Costa Rica’s drug enforcement police, the tons were found this Saturday, July 17, inside a container whose legal cargo was ceramic products.
The container arrived from Turbo, Colombia with the final destination Moín, specifically the Gastón Kogan Pier, in Limón.
This is the second largest seizure in history. The first occurred in February 2020 when, at the APM-Terminals facilities, in Moín, Limón, 5.8 tons of drugs were seized that were destined for the Netherlands hidden among a shipment of ornamental plants.
Regarding the case this weekend, authorities explained that the anti-drug agents were this Saturday carrying out the tasks, inspecting containers on the Cala Palma ship, in a typical inspection.
In the process, they received information from the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad Nacional (DIS), Costa Rica’s Intelligence service, alerting to a presumably “contaminated” ship; In other words, there was a possibility that drugs would be smuggled into the country.
Given that alert, the PCD agents focused even more on the inspection, which allowed them to find the container that had inside, at least 173 packages with illegal drugs. These packages were camouflaged among the legal cargo.
Faced with this initial situation, the agents continued with a detailed work that ended this Sunday and that allowed them to determine that it was a shipment of 4,329 packages of cocaine, each weighing approximately one kilogram.
With this important seizure, the PCD has so far this year seized some 10.7 tons of apparent cocaine, in seven containers; for 2020, there were 16.2 tons in 18 containers; and, during 2019, there were 5.9 tons in 10 containers.
The statistics are exclusive to the ports in the provinces of Limón and Puntarenas.