Judicial and immigration officials in Costa Rica on Tuesday arrested two men suspected of forming part of a criminal group responsible for smuggling migrants across the Americas on their way to the U.S.
Border police seized 20,000 pirate avocados at the Panama border on Thursday afternoon, the latest in the ongoing avocado saga that began when Costa Rica banned Mexican avocado imports a year ago.
Immigration officials accepted refugee applications from 60 of the 116 migrants. The remaining 56 were returned to Panama, according to Immigration Administration spokeswoman Seidy Muñoz.
The transnational network, allegedly headed by a Costa Rican woman surnamed RodrÃguez Torres charged Cubans between $7,000 and $15,000 to move them into the United States.
Authorities arrested the Costa Rican driver of the bus carrying the Cubans, identified by the last name EcheverrÃa. He was arrested on human trafficking charges and sent to a flagrancy court, according to the statement.
A Tico Times reporter opens his notebook -- and his photo file -- from a recent trip to the northern tip of Alajuela province, along the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border.
