Costa Rican security forces carried out two seizures on March 16 and 18, 2021, seizing 3.2 tons of cocaine. Both operations took place in Limón province, on the Caribbean coast of the Central American country.
The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Security reported the seizure of a shipment of 2.6 tons of cocaine in Westfalia, near Limón International Airport, on March 18. This operation was carried out with intelligence support from Colombia, Panama, and the United States, the Costa Rican newspaper La Nación reported.
The operation began around midnight on March 17, when the Costa Rican National Coast Guard Service (SNG, in Spanish) started chasing a suspicious vessel until it ran aground. Service members found 104 bags containing 2,630 kilograms of cocaine on the vessel, the Ministry reported.
The three men traveling in the vessel managed to escape, but the police said that agents later detained the fugitives at a road checkpoint, La Nación reported.
“This cocaine enters the national territory, it is stored […], and it is what we sometimes find when inspecting containers that are bound for Europe; this is a joint effort that we have been carrying out in the region with Panamanian authorities, with different police forces, and we are obtaining these important results,” Costa Rican Minister of Security Michael Soto told the press.
This cocaine enters the national territory, it is stored […], and it is what we sometimes find when inspecting containers that are bound for Europe; this is a joint effort that we have been carrying out in the region with Panamanian authorities, with different police forces, and we are obtaining these important results,” Costa Rican Minister of Security Michael Soto.
Another seizure in the Caribbean
In another interdiction, the Ministry reported that on March 16 the SNG, with the support of the Air Surveillance Service, pursued a suspicious vessel that attempted to flee when its crew noticed the police presence, until they ran aground in Limón, between the communities of Parismina and Tortuguero.
Authorities found 646 kg of cocaine on the boat and arrested a crew member named Ramírez Moreno, who had a record for the crimes of transporting drugs, aggravated robbery, and drug possession, the statement said.