Costa Rica has traditionally been perceived as a bastion of security in crime-ravaged Central America. In recent years, however, the country has experienced record levels of violence, which authorities have blamed on its growing role as a drug transshipment point.
The cat-and-mouse game of evading law enforcement was taken literally by drug smugglers recently in Panama, who hid cocaine on a feline and sent it into a prison.
The dismantling of a Costa Rican drug gang that worked with agents in an elite investigative unit to steal cocaine shipments from rival traffickers is yet another sign of the…
With owners of expensive lots kept away from Costa Rica because of COVID-19 restrictions, organized property fraud rings have enlisted corrupt notaries to steal properties.
Costa Rica has traditionally been perceived as a bastion of security in crime-ravaged Central America. In recent years, however, the country has experienced record levels of violence, which authorities have blamed on its growing role as a drug transshipment point. Local crime groups are growing evermore sophisticated and resorting to lethal violence to secure control. They now pose a major security threat for authorities as they become increasingly involved with transnational criminal organizations and expand their operations in Costa Rica, which may cause corruption and instability to also deepen.
Recent interceptions linked to the illicit smuggling of migrants at Nicaragua’s border with Costa Rica have illustrated the extent to which clandestine groups and individuals dedicated to the trade continue…
A string of recent arrests connecting judicial officials to drug trafficking organizations in Costa Rica have raised concerns that institutional corruption facilitating the trade is becoming more commonplace, as a…
A rush of drug plane traffic from South America, coupled with traffickers smuggling large cocaine shipments after coronavirus border restrictions eased, led to a surge in narcotics transiting Central America…
A sizeable seizure of adulterated rum shipped to Honduras from Europe reveals the extent to which black markets for alcohol in Latin America have expanded in response to limits on…
An experiment to track poached turtle eggs through the use of synthetic eggs equipped with GPS trackers in Costa Rica has offered a seductive new approach to fighting wildlife trafficking,…
The photos in the Costa Rican press showed Salvatore Ponzo, the Italian fruit exporter, with a neatly trimmed beard and polite smile, wearing polo shirts and baseball caps emblazoned with…
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