Authorities in Costa Rica have opened active criminal investigations to determine who organized the ongoing acts of violence and vandalism that began last week and continued through Monday during a dockworkers strike that briefly paralyzed the country's most important commercial port in the Caribbean province of Limón.
Cocaine seems to be falling from the sky in Costa Rica, as cops in the past 24 hours have seized more than a metric ton of cocaine in separate operations throughout the country.
Costa Rican police seized $4.13 million on Tuesday night during an anti-drug operation on the Inter-American Highway, the Public Security Ministry reported. According to reports, the stash of bills was hidden in a spare tire.
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.
A police investigation that lasted months culminated Sunday with the arrest in northern Costa Rica of six suspected drug traffickers, along with their small aircraft, 400 kilograms of cocaine and $1.5 million.
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.
A man with the last name Whytworth and a woman with the last name Olszewski, both U.S. citizens, were arrested Saturday for allegedly running a hydroponic marijuana growing operation on a farm in Santa Cruz, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.