Costa Rica drug patrols

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. 

Costa Rican authorities seized 1.1 metric tons of cocaine and detained six men

The drugs had been concealed in a load of banana pulp.

Costa Rican authorities seized 2.5 tons of cocaine in two separate operations carried out on the Pacific and Caribbean coastlines

Costa Rican authorities have seized 2,147 kilos of cocaine already this month.

The U.S. government also donated a 45-foot-long interceptor speed boat that local Coast Guard officials dubbed “Cadejos 3.”

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.