Top 5 Drug Trafficking Bloopers of 2009 in Costa Rica
What do underwear, surf boards, tires, submarines, sharks and wigs have in common? They have all been used as a vessel in thwarted attempts to smuggle cocaine through Costa Rica.
With more than four months left to go in the year, 2009 can already be considered a dynamic and record-breaking year for drug busts in Costa Rica. From the “white city” of Liberia in the north to the unpatrolled shores of Golfito in the south, there are few regions in Costa Rica that the international drug trade has left untouched.
Costa Rica has long been a key transit point along the principal drug route from Colombia to the United States, and is now used as a warehouse to store larger quantities of cocaine every year. Cocaine seizures in the nation increased from 2,955 kilos in 2002 to more than 90,000 kilos over the past three years during the Arias administration.
Most of the drugs are shipped, flown or driven through Costa Rica en route to Mexico, from where 91% of drugs enter the United States. The Pan-American Highway is the major shipment artery running through the region, allowing one to infer that Central America just might have more cocaine in its blood than Robert Downey Jr. and Courtney Love combined.
With 755 miles of coastline on the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean, poorly patrolled roads, a lack of border security in the south and limited police resources and specialization in rural areas, Costa Rica is one of the top targets for drug movement. However, with a never ending chain of command ranging from cartel leaders down to the local drug dealer that hangs out behind the church sampling his own goods, the best laid plans of mice and drug dealers often go awry.
Below are the top five drug busts of the year, plus our all time honorable mention:
1. Refurbished Evidence
In March of this year, the Judicial Organization (OIJ) investigators that found 320 kilos of cocaine in an abandoned speed boat along the coast of Golfito had their celebration cut short when it was stolen from the police house three days later. The cocaine was left there due to a lack of air transportation necessary to deliver the evidence to San Jose. Taking advantage of the delay, a motley crew that included three police officers, an ex-police official and the night guard devised a plan to have a false 911 call distract the two officials on duty that night. This opened a 20 minute time slot in which they swiped the cargo valued at $9 million on the U.S. market.
The amateur group enjoyed their winnings for nearly three months before eight of them were detained in a series of raids. Humility was not a virtue shared by the men who were found with a total of four brand new vehicles and more than $335,000 in various currencies.
2. That Won’t Fly
Time flies when you’re transporting excessive amounts of cocaine for profit. Helicopters don’t. In May of this year, a helicopter with two passengers and 396 kilos of cocaine crashed into the “Mountain of Death” or Cerro de la Muerte in the southern region of Costa Rica under the strain of the illicit cargo. The passengers were found dead along with the wreck and drugs with some difficulty due to the remote location.
The pilot, a Costa Rican native, had rented out a small hotel near the scene of the crash prior to the accident. He had no previous criminal charges and actually used the same helicopter to assist the Judicial Investigation Organization in searching for evidence in the past when police resources were limited. We can assume he learned his lesson. The passenger was of Mexican origin and had entered the country earlier that year without cause for concern by local officials.
3. Stuffed Shark on the Rocks
Shark, a controversial delicacy often gratuitously killed just for the dorsal fins, becomes even more controversial when it’s stuffed with cocaine and sent on ice to Mexico on a cargo ship. Thus was the fate of 20 shark carcasses used to conceal 894 kilos of cocaine that departed Caldera, a Pacific coast port of Costa Rica, en route to the Yucatan peninsula in June of this year.
To make things more interesting, in looking for a commercial fisherman connected to the shipment, Costa Rica police uncovered a private island property in Golfito outfitted with underground tunnels and vaults three meters deep that were used to store drug shipments. Access points to the vaults were covered by wood and ceramic flooring and then by concrete covers.
This same band of drug traffickers with Mexican ties responsible for the shark shipment are now being connected to a more recent drug seizure of 419 kilos of cocaine that was found covered in frozen red snapper in a truck along the Pan-American highway outside of Golfito. In both cases the fish were contaminated when several bags of cocaine broke open, which helped tip off authorities that something wasn’t right. The cocaine in the truck came from a 40-ft speedboat with two 100-horsepower motors that was found abandoned along the coast. The real losers in both cases were the fish, which had to be disposed of.
3. Three Times a Charm
Costa Rican and Panamanian authorities detained two bus drivers for transporting multiple bags of cocaine on a passenger bus traveling from Panama to Costa Rica this past July 2009. At first the bus was stopped in Panama thanks to tips to the authorities who uncovered three bags containing a total 22 kilos of cocaine. The drivers and two other men were arrested and a replacement driver was sent by the bus company to continue the route.
Later at the Panamanian-Costa Rican border, the bus was revised again when a bag with 3 kilos of cocaine was found, thought to be part of the original shipment. Then in the southern area of Costa Rica, passengers called the police when they noted the substitute bus driver acting odd. A third revision was performed and another 8 kilos were found in a bag and the replacement driver was also arrested.
It is a common tactic for drug traffickers to send anonymous tips to border police regarding a small shipment of cocaine by way of bus or truck in order to divert attention and allow larger shipments to pass through.
5. Stubborn (or stupid) as a Mule
This final umbrella category refers to the “mules” or humans trafficking smaller quantities of drugs on their person, luggage or vehicle. In just the first half of this year, anti-drug authorities detained 32 drug traffickers or “mules” in the Juan Santamaria airport in San Jose, already beating the 26 people arrested throughout all of 2008 at the international airport. Most of these people are foreigners en route to Europe (mainly Italy, Germany, France and Spain) where the market prices are the highest. Those that are caught take a detour of 8 to 12 years in jail.
While some of these mules are suspected to be part of a new trafficking association that moves drugs from Costa Rica to Spain, would be considered entrepreneurs. Airport detainees have ranged from 18 to 60 years old and were caught with drugs in coffee bags, surf boards, their underwear, printer cartridges, sewn into wigs, wrapped in gift boxes and hidden amid extra compartments in their luggage, among other locations. Most recently, a 60 year old man was detained with one kilo of cocaine in his stomach.
All Time Honorable Mention: Escobar Meets MacGyver
The best drug trafficking feat of all time proves the phrase that with necessity comes ingenuity. In 2006, U.S. Coast Guard officials discovered a handmade wood and fiberglass submarine floating 100 miles off Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast. The 50-foot submergible craft was cruising along at 7 mph just six feet below the surface of the water and concealed three tons of cocaine.
The four-man crew including two Colombians, a Guatemalan and a Sri Lankan, were found using plastic pipes as breathing devices. Among the bags of cocaine were several tanks of gas and utensils to bail out water, leading authorities to believe they had not and would not get too far. The four men were arrested and taken to the U.S. for trial.
