Q COSTA RICA — Organized crews are using leaked shipping data to target trucks, move stolen goods through a network of warehouses and resellers, and, in some cases, exploit captured containers to smuggle drugs.
Cargo theft in Costa Rica is no longer just a matter of trucks disappearing on the highway. Investigators have identified cases in which criminal groups used stolen containers to contaminate legitimate cargo with drugs, linking theft to a wider trafficking operation, according to Infobae.
The scale is striking. At least 156 cargo loads were stolen in 2025—about three trucks a week—and by July 2026, 71 thefts had been recorded, Infobae reported, citing an investigation by InSight Crime. Over the past decade, criminal groups have stolen more than 1,300 vehicles along the country’s main freight routes.
Targeted shipments, not random victims
The attacks cluster along two commercial corridors. One runs roughly 520 kilometers from Paso Canoas, on the Panamanian border, north to Peñas Blancas, near Nicaragua. The other crosses the country between the Caribbean port of Limón and the Pacific port of Caldera.
The groups’ ability to pick specific loads points to a key vulnerability: access to shipping information.
Costa Rica’s online customs system, TICA, can reveal the contents of a container using a truck’s license plate or container number. Criminals are believed to obtain information through contacts at customs and transport companies, or from lookouts near borders and ports.
Authorities and industry specialists also suspect that some gain access to records in the regional customs system, DUCA, which can include cargo values and driver credentials.
That information turns theft into a planned operation. Crews may ambush drivers at parking areas, box in moving trucks with several cars, or strike where vehicles must slow down. Some have impersonated police to force drivers to stop. GPS trackers offer limited protection when thieves use signal jammers.
Drivers can be threatened, tied up and beaten; some have been killed or seriously injured. Once a truck is taken, the crew may drive it to a warehouse or detach its container at an isolated spot and transfer it to another vehicle.
Stolen goods find a route back to market
The theft is only one part of the business. Police investigators cited by Infobae describe a countrywide network of warehouses and intermediaries who connect stolen merchandise to small retailers. Goods are sometimes resold for half—or as little as a quarter—of their market price.
That resale system helps explain why cargo theft can persist even when individual robberies draw public attention: stolen goods can be held until the case fades from the news, then moved through ordinary retail channels. The criminal operation is not simply about seizing a truck; it depends on buyers willing to handle the goods and a distribution chain that can absorb them.
The impact also reaches beyond Costa Rica. Trucks carrying goods destined for other Central American countries are vulnerable along regional routes, while theft can disrupt tax collection because duties on international goods are paid when they reach their final destination.
A larger security problem—and a harder response
The drug connection raises the stakes. When a stolen container is used to conceal drugs inside legitimate merchandise, the logistics of cargo theft can serve a second criminal purpose: giving traffickers access to the container and its supply chain. The reported cases do not establish that every theft is tied to narcotics, but they show how the two forms of crime can intersect.
Costa Rican authorities have stepped up enforcement. On October 9, 1,275 judicial officials carried out 80 simultaneous raids in nine areas and arrested 31 people linked to a group operating mainly in Limón. Investigators believe the organization was connected to at least 11 container thefts across several parts of the country, with losses estimated at US$1.5 million.
The country also passed Law 10736 in 2025, increasing prison penalties for receiving high-value stolen goods. But enforcement and tougher sentencing address only part of the chain. If shipment data continues to leak, drivers remain exposed on predictable routes, and stolen products can still be sold through intermediaries, the business retains its basic ingredients.
The deeper lesson is that cargo theft has become a supply-chain crime. It relies on information, coordinated attacks, storage, resale—and, in some cases, links to drug trafficking. Costa Rica’s judicial authorities have said that a durable response will require ongoing cooperation among law enforcement, ports, carriers, importers and exporters, rather than police operations alone.