QCOSTARICA – On National Television, President Rodrigo Chaves announced with great expectations the future installation of scanners in ports and border posts to detect illicit drugs in containers.
Chaves said that this technology will be available next year and said that “our country does not deserve to be the largest cocaine exporter in the world”.
The president said that this review has to do beyond the security issue, it is also related to employment.
The Minister of Agriculture, Víctor Carvajal, said that thousands of jobs in the country depend on the export of products, a situation that would be affected if there were closures due to drug trafficking.
For his part, the Minister of Finance, Nogui Acosta, mentioned that some US$60 million dollars will be invested in the next 10 years the country will have scanners in “all the ports and airports” to combat drug trafficking.
Read more: Scanner operators at APM Terminals among arrested for facilitating exit of container with cocaine
“It was a lack of desire and indolence,” said President Chaves after the explanation of RACSA manager, Mauricio Barrantes, about the high quality of scanners that the country will have.
Currently, there is only one scanner to control the entry and exit of illicit drugs: the one in Moín, in Limón, managed by APM Terminals, and it was out of operation, damaged for at least seven months, between May 2021 and January 2022.