cocaine

Costa Rican authorities discovered more than 1.3 tons of cocaine off the coast of Matapalo, Puntarenas, near the Panamanian border, after four suspected Colombian drug traffickers tried to dump their cargo overboard Tuesday evening, according to Martín Arias, head of the Coast Guard.

An estimated 86 percent of the cocaine trafficked into the United States passes through Central America, according to the United States State Department’s 2014 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. The firehose of cocaine passing through the isthmus has led the State Department to name Costa Rica and its Central American neighbors as major drug producing and drug-transit countries.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia – The interception in Colombia of a plane carrying almost half a metric ton of coca paste bound for Mexico is a sign Mexican drug cartels are switching from importers to manufacturers, according to Colombian police.

Some Costa Rican fisherman thought they caught the big one Wednesday morning before the Coast Guard showed up to hook them.

Drug Control Police seized 1,631 lbs. of cocaine hidden under 58 boxes of scrap metal in a truck attempting to leave Costa Rica at the Peñas Blacnas border crossing Thursday evening.

Six days into the raucous Palmares civic festival, in the northwestern Central Valley, police already have arrested 198 people.