Costa Rica Seizes 1.4 Tons of Cocaine,
Arrests 4 Colombians
Costa Rican authorities seized
1.4 tons of cocaine being smuggled on a
speedboat in the Pacific and arrested four
Colombians, who were turned over to
prosecutors, Security Minister Janina Del
Vecchio said.
The speedboat was stopped some 17 nautical
miles off Costa Rica’s southern Pacific
coast, thanks to a joint Costa Rican-U.S.
surveillance program, Del Vecchio said in a
statement.
The vessel’s crew threw several bales of
cocaine overboard when they realized they
had been spotted, but authorities recovered
the drugs.
A large security operation has been launched
in southern Costa Rica, especially around
Golfito, a port town in Puntarenas province,
where the cocaine and suspects were taken,
Del Vecchio said.
The suspects face drug trafficking charges,
which carry prison terms of up to 20 years
in Costa Rica.
So far this year, Costa Rica has seized at
least six tons of cocaine, with the majority
of the seizures occurring in the Pacific,
which is the main smuggling route from South
America to North America.
Since President Oscar Arias took office in
2006, Costa Rica has seized nearly 90 tons
of cocaine. EFE
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