Costa Rica along with support from the United States, seized more than 1.3 tons of cocaine transported on a speedboat intercepted in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and detained three Costa Ricans and one Nicaraguan on board, the Ministry of Security reported.
“As part of joint patrols with the United States, the National Coast Guard Service of the Ministry of Security captured a boat loaded with 1,349 kilos of cocaine in the central Pacific,” the institution detailed in a statement published on Friday night on its Facebook account.
The “suspicious vessel” was detected hours earlier by a U.S. plane patrolling the area and alerting Costa Rican authorities, the note detailed.
During the operation, the four occupants of the speedboat were arrested: three Costa Ricans and one Nicaraguan. “Joint patrolling [with the United States] remains vital to weakening drug trafficking structures,” added the Ministry of Public Security.
So far this year, Costa Rica has seized 9.2 tons of cocaine and 7.4 tons of marijuana, mainly in the Caribbean and southern parts of the country, according to official data.
