Costa Rican Coast Guard nabs speedboat with marijuana shipment

Costa Rican Coast Guard officers on Wednesday detained a 30-foot speedboat in the Caribbean port of Moín, in which two men were transporting several packages of compressed marijuana.

The suspects, with last names McDonald and Cortés, both residents of the province of Limón, threw the drugs into the sea in an attempt to escape.

Coast Guard officers recovered the marijuana and also found four empty barrels of fuel inside the boat.

“The war on drugs has allowed us to seize more than six tons of cocaine in the first half of this year, and to destroy more than half a million marijuana plants, as well as confiscate weapons, vehicles and cash related to drug trafficking,” Public Security Minister Mario Zamora said at a press conference.

The detainees were handed over to judicial authorities and will be charged with drug trafficking. Drug Control Police officers took the packages to their facilities to determine the exact amount seized.