Costa Rican police seize more than a ton of cocaine

Agents from the Drug Control Police seized more than a ton of cocaine in three different raids by land and sea.

The first confiscation took place Tuesday evening in the waters of the South Pacific, 400 kilometers from Punta Burica, where agents seized a boat carrying near a ton of cocaine.

Security Minister Mario Zamora explained that the boat left the Pacific port of Puntarenas on Nov. 14, and after three weeks of a joint operation between the United States and Canada, authorities were able to arrest the smugglers. Three men were arrested in the operation.

A second shipment of 138 kilos was found Wednesday inside the air conditioning system of a truck in Peñas Blancas, on the border with Nicaragua. The truck was driven by a Honduran national who was arrested on the spot.

Finally, agents from the Border Police in Sixaola, on the border with Panama seized nine kilos more from a suitcase. They had been performing a routine check of a Panamanian bus heading to San José.

No arrests were made ​​because no passenger claimed ownership of the suitcase.