LatinNews Daily Report - 28 May 2013

SECURITY | More big drug seizures. On 27 May Panama’s police announced that the national aeronaval service (Senan) had confiscated 2.7 tonnes (t) of cocaine two days earlier in Caribbean waters of the indigenous Guna Yala Comarca (an indigenous political administrative region) on the border with Colombia. According to the local press, the drugs were being transported in a go-fast boat by five people who managed to get away. This is the second major drug seizure in just over a week after Senan announced on 20 May that it had confiscated 2.4t drugs in an operation which took place on 17 May in the Caribbean coastal province of Colón. Meanwhile, on 24 May Costa Rica’s judicial investigation agency (OIJ) announced the seizure of a tonne of cocaine following an operation carried out in the Caribbean waters, in the area of Westfalia, in Limón province. This also follows other recent significant seizures and drugs-related arrests in Costa Rica. These include the announcement on 19 May by the Costa Rican authorities that a Costa Rican national had been picked up on the Peñas Blancas border crossing with Nicaragua for attempting to smuggle 406kg of cocaine in a van.