Q COSTARICA — In the largest police operation in history, Costa Rica dealt a powerful blow to the country’s major cartel, the criminal organization—dubbed the Cártel del Caribe Sur (South Caribbean Cartel) by authorities.
According to Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) Deputy Director Michael Soto, the criminal organization operated as a transnational network involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, and arms trafficking, with a presence on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of Costa Rica.
The operation involved 64 raids across the country in the provinces of Limón, Alajuela, Cartago, Puntarenas, and San José. Among the properties raided by the OIJ were luxury homes in areas such as La Sabana, Escazú, and Curridabat, as well as Chira Island, where the group received shipments from the Pacific.
The operation, dubbed “Operación Traición” (Operation Betrayal), was conducted under the functional direction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and with the support of the Ministry of Public Security, the San José Municipal Police, the Costa Rican Institute on Drugs (ICD), and other institutions—some 1,200 officers from various police forces and tactical response units.
“This is perhaps the largest operation in the country’s criminal history,” Soto stated. “It has all the components of a cartel: maritime and land logistics, money laundering, internal security, and international connections.”
Over the past few years, the investigation has led to the seizure of 13.7 tons of drugs (including marijuana and cocaine) and 68 firearms, including AR-15 assault rifles.
Authorities also estimate that the assets and vehicles linked to the organization are worth over ¢2 billion colones.
The organization was led by two brothers, Luis Manuel Picado Grijalba (43) and Jordie Kevin Picado Grijalba (32), aliases “Shock” and “Noni”. Both are of Nicaraguan origin: Shock, born in the neighboring country, became a naturalized Costa Rican, while Noni is a native-born citizen, although their family roots are the same.
Shock is currently detained in the United Kingdom, awaiting extradition to the United States, while Noni was captured in Costa Rica and will also be extradited to the United States.
The OIJ highlighted the collaboration of police forces from Colombia, Panama, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France, which provided key information about the cartel’s international operations.
Furthermore, the investigation revealed that the group had an armed wing led by Tony Peña Russel (arrested after multiple raids in Limon, in June 2024), implicated in at least 78 homicides, the subject of 140 previous raids, and having created “hitman schools” in the province of Limón.
OIJ deputy director compared his role to that of “Los Zetas,” the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel in Mexico.
The group also controlled the entry of high-quality Colombian marijuana, which, according to the OIJ, became the most consumed product in the local market. The Cartel operated as a national supplier of cocaine and marijuana, selling shipments to other local drug trafficking groups in the capital, along the coasts, and in rural areas of the country.
It also maintained international routes to the United States and Europe, using Costa Rica’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts to receive shipments from Colombia and redistribute them.
Costa Rican authorities consider this operation a historic blow to drug trafficking and assert that, although some arrests are still pending, the main leaders have already been captured.
Despite the success of the operation, authorities acknowledge that the dismantling of this group could create power vacuums in the Costa Rican Caribbean, a phenomenon that could trigger new violent disputes for territorial control.
The OIJ says it is actively monitoring at least a dozen criminal figures who have been released from prison in recent months and who “could try to fill the void left by the leaders of the South Caribbean Cartel.”