In 2020, Costa Rican authorized seized a record 71.2 tons of cocaine and marijuana. The United States provides financial and material support to Costa Rica's anti-narcotics efforts.
Coast Guard vessels from both countries detained two fishing boats transporting drugs and another transporting fuel barrels, suspected of supplying smuggling boats.
Police operations carried out by the Public Security Ministry during 2014 resulted in the seizure of seven tons of processed marijuana and the elimination of 872,923 marijuana plants, Minister Celso Gamboa reported on Tuesday.
In the last voting of Tuesday's full legislative session, lawmakers approved docking permission for 44 U.S. Coast Guard vessels that will conduct joint-patrol operations with Costa Rican authorities from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2015.
Several large seizures recently have shed light on a trend of young fishermen without criminal records who are risking their freedom for quick cash by ferrying cocaine or assisting traffickers to move drugs north to the United States along the country’s Pacific coastline.
