Costa Rica's president and public security chief spoke with the U.S.' top military leader for the region about collaboration opportunities, border police training, humanitarian assistance and human rights.
Details of the operation are still emerging, but initial reports from Costa Rica's National Police indicate that cops on Sunday seized an SUV loaded with 400 kilograms of cocaine in the Pacific coastal province of Puntarenas. Two suspects fled and no arrests have yet been made.
Liberia Assistant Prosecutor Liliana Zamora confirmed to The Tico Times that Rancho Horizonte, where cops seized 400 kilos of cocaine and more than $1.8 million in cash on Sunday, is owned by several U.S. shareholders. Although the name "Hilton" appears in the company's title, Zamora could not immediately confirm that diva Paris Hilton had any connection to the property.
In the driver’s compartment police also discovered the driver's 29-year-old son, who abandoned a truck he was driving in El Salvador on Friday with 102 kilograms of cocaine.
Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration apprehended the suspects, most of them under 30 years of age, with 1.9 metric tons of cocaine in a fishing boat approximately 200 nautical miles southwest of Punta Burica on June 10.
The U.S. Coast Guard captured a Costa Rican fishing vessel and arrested three Costa Ricans and one Nicaraguan suspect off the coast of the remote Cocos Island in the Pacific. The boat had 2.3 tons of cocaine on board. The bust went down on Monday with the assistance of local Drug Control Police.
Acting on a tip from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Costa Rican Drug Control Police seized over 700 kilograms of cocaine Thursday and arrested four suspects.
The Costa Rican Coast Guard seized over 4 metric tons of cocaine off the Pacific coast on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, according to Public Security Minister Celso Gamboa, in what is likely the largest cocaine seizure ever in Costa Rica.
“Tired accusations of ‘Yankee imperialism’ are just annoying clichés from an era that ended long ago,” tweeted the U.S. Embassy, attributing the comments to Chargé d'Affaires Gonzalo Gallegos, who has been the top U.S. diplomatic officer in Costa Rica since 2013.
