Caribbean & Central America - September 2021

In July Costa Rica’s security minister Michael Soto confirmed that the country’s authorities had seized 4.3 tonnes (t) of cocaine in a single seizure. This is the country’s second biggest single haul after officials found 5.48t in February 2020 at APM Terminals port of Moín hidden in a container due to be shipped to The Netherlands. It once again illustrates Costa Rica’s significance as one of the primary destinations in the region for the transit of cocaine, owing to its strategic location, long stretches of coastline, and the relatively small size of its security forces.

Announcing the haul on 18 July, Soto said the drugs were seized at Gastón Kogan dock, Moín port, Limón province, during a routine inspection. He did not give further details but the local press reported that they was found in a container coming from Colombia. Soto said that with the latest drug seizure, authorities had so far confiscated 10.698t of cocaine this year.

According to the US State Department’s latest (March 2021) International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), during the period January-October 2020, Costa Rica seized over 43t of cocaine, exceeding the record of 35.1t confiscated during the same time period in 2019. It adds that the Costa Rican government led by President Carlos Alvarado reports having disrupted over 17 international drug trafficking organisations in 2020. It underlines that “concerns of violence have intensified the government’s fight against drug trafficking, leading to greater police professionalisation, advances in community security programmes, and improved success in drug interdiction and disruption of drug trafficking” (see sidebar).

• JOC

The INCSR report on Costa Rica highlights as examples of this institutional strengthening, the fact that in 2019 Costa Rica established the country’s first-ever Joint Operations Centre (JOC), bringing together all major law enforcement entities and enhancing coordination of alerts, assets, and operations. It describes the new centre as the public ministry’s 24/7 command and control node for coordinating, directing, and monitoring joint law enforcement operations, and maintains continual communication with the US and other partner nation operations centres.