Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth have all made one thing very clear: We're gonna keep blowing up the narco-boats bringing drugs from South America into our country. Trump said last week that we have 85% of the sea under control, and while we do continue to strike these vessels, some of them manage to get away. Thankfully, we have partners in the region who are helping us stop the ones who fall through the cracks.
Last week, in Costa Rica, a joint operation between the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Costa Rica's Drug Control Police (PCD), both countries' coast guards, Costa Rica's Special Support Unit (UEA), and the Directorate of Intelligence and Criminal Analysis (DIAC) led to the seizure of over 4.4 tons of cocaine off the Central American coast.
Costa Rica's Ministry of Public Security announced the major win against drug trafficking on Thursday, and on Friday President Rodrigo Chaves spoke at a press conference at Juan Santamaría International Airport near San Jose, "praising the operation and noting its role in the fight against narcotics. He stressed the value of U.S. assistance in these efforts, calling the seizure a clear win for security cooperation."
The drugs were located on a boat that was traveling from Colombia — shocking, I know — and had two Colombian nationals on board. It was discovered about 170 nautical miles from Golfito, a port town on the country's southern Pacific coast. It's a popular spot for fishing and yachting, and cruise ships often dock there.
As many of you know, Costa Rica is like a second home to me, and as much as it pains me to say this, what is normally one of the most unproblematic countries in Latin America has seen an uptick in crime and violence recently. I'm hoping to write more about that one day in the near future, but as with much of the rest of the region, cartel activity and drug trafficking are the major reasons why. Traffickers in South America are using Costa Rica as a transit hub between their own countries and Europe and North America.
Luckily, Costa Rica is taking it seriously, and one way authorities are combatting the growing threat is by partnering with the United States and patrolling the seas and sharing real-time data between the countries so they can act swiftly.
As a matter of fact, while this appears to be the largest seizure this year, it's definitely not the first. In March, law enforcement seized 1.2 metric tons of cocaine and arrested three Nicaraguan nationals in the Southern Pacific. In June, authorities seized 1.2 tons from an area on the Pacific Coast that's a little ways north of Golfito and busted up a separate international drug trafficking organization that was shipping cocaine from the Moín Container Terminal in Limón on the country's Caribbean coast. In Limón, drugs were "hidden in tin cans labeled as pineapple pulp, cassava flour, scrap materials, and even inside refrigeration systems."
In July, law enforcement seized another 810 kilos of cocaine from Moin Container Terminal concealed in banana boxes. A drug dog actually sniffed them out. In August, police intercepted a white tourism mini bus in Costa Rica's Osa region, which contained 1,299 kilos of cocaine, cash from Costa Rica and the U.S., and an "AR-15 rifle fitted with a laser sight and a magazine loaded with 5.56-caliber rounds."
Costa Rican Security Minister Mario Zamora said in August that the country will continue to crack down on drug trafficking via land, sea, and air. "We’ll keep boosting police presence and running targeted ops across the country," he said.
As I noted last month, Costa Rica isn't just stepping up and helping us patrol for narcos. They're also extraditing them to them to the United States, something that up until earlier this year was unconstitutional in that country. Here's more from what I wrote in October:
One way Costa Rica maintains its neutral tendencies is by shielding its own citizens from extradition to other countries. Regardless of the type or crime committed or where the person committed it, if he or she is a Costa Rican national, they're safe if they can get back to their home country. It's part of the nation's Constitution. While Costa Rica has extradition treaties in place with the United States and other countries, the treaties only allow for the government to extradite foreigners. Unfortunately, criminals often take advantage of this, which has led to the increase in drug-related crimes.
However, earlier this year, that changed. On May 15, the Legislative Assembly voted 44-13 to amend that article of the Constitution, and a couple of weeks later, President Rodrigo Chaves signed it into law. The United States government applauded this move. Mike Flores, chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica, said, 'Extradition is a key tool in the fight against organized crime and sends a message of trust and responsibility between our countries.'
And earlier this month, Costa Rica exercised its new law for the first time. On October 7, Judge William Serrano Baby, of San José’s Tribunal Penal del I Circuito Judicia, ruled that three Costa Rican nationals — Celso Manuel Gamboa Sánchez, Edwin Danney López Vega, and Jonathan Guillermo Álvarez Alfaro — could be extradited to the U.S. to face cocaine trafficking charges in Texas.
I've been hammering this point for months, but something is changing in Latin America. People are tired of being held hostage by socialist leaders and cartel violence. Many are stepping up to fight the drug trade, embrace Western values, and partner with Donald Trump and the United States in an effort to clean up our hemisphere. I, for one, am here for it, and will report on it every step of the way.
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