A US surveillance aircraft helped Costa Rican authorities track a speedboat carrying about 1.5 metric tons (roughly 3,300 pounds) of cocaine off the Osa Peninsula, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Two Costa Rican men were detained. The National Coast Guard Service spotted the suspicious vessel during a routine patrol on Monday afternoon, about 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers, or 23 miles) off Cabo Matapalo, the peninsula’s southern tip.
The ministry said the people on board tried to flee when they noticed the patrol, setting off a chase at sea during which they allegedly threw the cargo overboard. The operation ran into the early hours of Tuesday, when officers finished recovering and counting the drugs. The Coast Guard worked alongside the Drug Control Police (PCD) and the Directorate of Intelligence and National Security (DIS).
The US Drug Enforcement Administration supported the operation, and an aircraft deployed through Joint Interagency Task Force South, a US command based in Key West, Florida, that coordinates counter-drug surveillance across the region, took part. Authorities said the air support helped keep the suspects under watch during the pursuit.
Public Security Minister Gerald Campos said police then located a house in the southern zone where more drugs were believed to be stored. Authorities said the two men were detained at the property, where officers also seized weapons and additional drugs. The two suspects have not been publicly identified, and the ministry said further details would be released as the investigation continues.
The seizure is the second this month in which a US aircraft supported a Costa Rican interdiction in the same waters. On October 15, Campos reported that authorities had seized more than four tons of cocaine in four days, including 1,175 packages from a boat 141 nautical miles (261 kilometers, or 162 miles) off Cabo Matapalo. Three Colombian nationals were detained in that case, which a US maritime patrol aircraft also assisted.
That same run of operations included 3,077 packages intercepted by the Border Police in the Térraba-Sierpe wetland, a protected mangrove system on the southern Pacific coast, and 52 kilograms (115 pounds) found at the MoÃn container terminal in Limón.
The latest case comes as cocaine seizures in Costa Rica have climbed nearly 50% this year and as the government deepens security cooperation with the United States, including a recent run of extraditions to US courts. The stretch of coast between the Osa Peninsula and the Panama border is a frequent focus of interdiction operations because of its proximity to northbound maritime trafficking routes from South America.
