Costa Rican authorities could destroy clandestine airstrips used by criminal groups without waiting for a final court ruling, under a bill that cleared a key legislative committee this week with unanimous support.
The Security and Narcotrafficking Committee approved the bill on Thursday. It is titled the Law to Sanction and Disable Clandestine and Unauthorized Airstrips and Allow the Confiscation of Assets Linked to Illicit Activities. The bill now goes to the full Legislative Assembly for a first-round vote and is not yet law.
President Laura Fernández submitted the measure in June as one of six bills in her administration’s package against organized crime. It is the fourth of the six to clear the committee. Under the bill, the Civil Aviation Directorate (DGAC) would declare an airstrip, airfield or helipad clandestine or illegal through a reasoned administrative resolution. Owners, tenants and administrators would first get a 10-business-day hearing to present evidence.
Once that resolution is final, the Public Security Ministry’s Air Surveillance Service could disable, demolish or destroy the site, with help from other agencies and municipalities. The rules would cover facilities used for drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking and organized crime.
Prosecutors could also ask a criminal judge to freeze the property in the National Registry, which would block its sale, donation, transfer or mortgage while the measure is in force. Machinery, vehicles and aircraft used to build or operate the strips could be seized and later permanently forfeited. The Costa Rican Drug Institute (ICD) would administer them.
The bill raises the prison sentence for building, enabling, facilitating or allowing a clandestine airstrip from the current three to eight years to five to 10 years. Owners, tenants or administrators who rebuild, rehabilitate or reuse a strip that authorities have already closed or destroyed would face 10 to 15 years.
Fines for operating aircraft at unauthorized facilities would double, from 20 to 40 base salaries. Deputy Kattia Calvo of the governing Pueblo Soberano party said changes were added to guarantee due process, including a way for property owners to present evidence of their innocence. Social Christian Unity Party deputy Abril Gordienko backed the bill, noting that clandestine strips can also enable crimes beyond drug trafficking.
Frente Amplio caucus leader José MarÃa Villalta said it was the first bill the committee had discussed that could truly hit organized crime, because it targets the assets criminal groups use to operate. He also raised procedural concerns. He warned that a separate bill on tourist airparks could create conflicting rules on air surveillance.
Costa Rica already allows the Air Surveillance Service to identify, declare illegal and disable clandestine strips under Law 9902, in force since 2020. According to the new bill’s statement of purpose, that law has no specific tools to act on the assets used to build or maintain the strips.
How many strips exist is unclear because they are built to go unnoticed. Fernández has said there are close to 200. The Public Security Ministry’s last official figure, from 2020, put the number of identified unauthorized strips at more than 140, and at least 20 were reported destroyed between the law’s entry into force and the end of 2024.
Some legal analysts have questioned whether the property freeze adds much to existing organized crime and registry security laws. They have also warned that a landowner may not know a strip is operating on their land. The bill now awaits a first-round vote in the full Assembly.
