Nicaragua seizes cocaine on board small aircraft from Costa Rica

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Nicaraguan authorities on Wednesday seized a shipment of cocaine that was flown into the country aboard a small airplane from Costa Rica after the aircraft landed in a northwestern region of the country. The flight’s crew managed to escape, police said.

Nicaraguan police found three suitcases packed with cocaine, National Police Assistant Director Francisco Díaz told local TV Channel 4 news in Managua.

The circumstances surrounding the plane’s landing near a rural cane field in the community of Cuatro Esquinas, Chinandega Department, are not yet clear. Cuatro Esquinas, in the municipality of Puerto Morazán, is located about 132 kilometers northwest of the capital.

According to a flight plan, the small plane left Costa Rica’s Tobías Bolaños International Airport in Pavas, a western district of San José, and was headed to Punta Islita, on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, Díaz said.

Police are searching for the suspects who allegedly fled the scene in two large trucks.

“We are searching for two trucks in which two or three suspects escaped,” Díaz added.