Araya is the 16th drug smuggler nabbed at Juan Santamaría International Airport so far this year. He was the second Costa Rican arrested with drugs; the other suspected smugglers were all foreign nationals.
Juan Santamaría International Airport reopened around 11:30 a.m. Friday after a nearly 18-hour closure. Authorities warned that the reopening could be temporary, depending on future activity at Turrialba Volcano.
Arrested with more than 3 kilograms of cocaine in his suitcase, the tourist becomes the first drug mule caught in Costa Rica this year, according to the Public Security Ministry.
Over the weekend United Airlines inaugurated a new weekly nonstop flight from San José, Costa Rica, to George Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas, in the United States. It is the carrier’s fifth weekly flight on the route and operates four days a week, from Friday to Monday, departing at 1:45 a.m.
A K-9 unit dog detected the special brownies inside a backpack belonging to the 58-year-old man. Dogs found the drugs while performing routine luggage inspections on two local flights arriving from the provinces of Guanacaste and Puntarenas.
As Costa Ricans obsessively tracked the arrival of their national men's team, La Sele, after its historic run at the 2014 World Cup – many rushing to Juan Santamaría International Airport to catch a glimpse of the players – thousands of visitors to Costa Rica were trying to reach the airport.
