Costa Rica police rescue mule hidden in car’s trunk

National Police officers conducting routine inspections near Costa Rica’s northern border were shocked to find a mule hidden inside a car’s trunk.

Officers from the Public Security Ministry (MSP) and the Border Police stopped the car for inspection at a checkpoint in Pocosol de San Carlos, a community near the border with Nicaragua. They were carrying out an operation to fight drug and people trafficking and to detect contraband that’s commonly smuggled in this region.

“We ordered the car to pull over and we noticed the driver was very nervous. We then asked him to open the car’s trunk and that’s when we found the mule in a very uncomfortable position, it could barely move,” Border Police’s Regional Director Max Méndez said.

The car was driven by a Nicaraguan national with the last name Martínez, 28, a resident of Chilamate, Nicaragua, according to his identification. He was taken to the local Prosecutor’s office, MSP reported.

Cattle and mule rustling are common in northern Costa Rica. Farm owners frequently report rustlers taking their animals to Nicaragua or killing them to sell their meat door to door.

For Ticos the case brings back memories of the infamous 2005 case of María del Milagro or “Milagro the cow.” At the time, cops rescued the animal while she was being transported on the back seat of an informal taxi in Coronado, a canton north of San José.