HomeNewsBrief'Costa Rica Exporting Cocaine to 4 Continents'
BRIEF

'Costa Rica Exporting Cocaine to 4 Continents'

COSTA RICA / 2 JAN 2013 BY CLAIRE O NEILL MCCLESKEY EN

Criminal groups are reportedly using Costa Rica to export cocaine shipments to dozens of destinations across the globe, raising new questions about the country's vulnerability to organized crime. 

According to an internal report by Costa Rica's narcotics police, viewed by Mexican newspaper El Universal, in the past several years shipments of Colombian cocaine have been exported from Costa Rica to 39 different destinations on four continents. The countries receiving drug shipments from Costa Rica included China, Iran, South Africa, Latvia, and many islands of Oceania. 

The report is the latest indication of Costa Rica's rising position as a distribution point for international drug shipments. Authorities have noted that increased amounts of cocaine are being found inside the country, with 15.5 tons of the drug seized in 2012, up from 9.2 tons the previous year.

Costa Rica's anti-narcotics police have said they dismantled over 100 drug trafficking organizations in 2012, but most of these were local distribution networks: only 12 were international drug smuggling rings. 

The Sinaloa Cartel, La Familia Michoacana, and the Gulf Cartel are all believed to have representatives in Costa Rica, although there have been reports that the Zetas also have a presence.

InSight Crime Analysis

Previously, Costa Rica served as a meeting point for Colombian and Mexican cartels to seal deals on the transport of cocaine to the principal market of North America. Now, however, evidence suggests that Costa Rica has moved beyond serving as a "midway point" for drug trafficking organizations moving product north, and is now functioning as a strategic center and base of operations for criminal groups. Mexican transnational criminal groups, with the Sinaloa Cartel at the head of the pack, have established relationships with local partners to expand their drug smuggling and money laundering operations within the country.

[Read InSight Crime's special report by security analyst Michael Porth on organized crime in Costa Rica, including Parts I, II, and III.]

President Laura Chinchilla, who took office in May 2010, has been vocal about the threat posed to Costa Rica by drug trafficking. However, her administration - currently struggling with low approval ratings - has yet to make any significant headway against organized crime.

In addition to the increase in cocaine seizures, one particularly alarming development is the vulnerability of state institutions to criminal infiltration. Costa Rica, Latin America's oldest democracy, had previously enjoyed a reputation for robust democratic institutions, but the past year saw several cases of drug-related corruption among police and judicial officials.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BAGDAD / 15 FEB 2022

The leader of Panama’s largest drug trafficking group has been arrested in Costa Rica and is set to be extradited…

BRAZIL / 22 JUN 2023

Latin America's constantly growing prison population has seen tens of thousands of children growing up without their parents, with dire…

COLOMBIA / 13 FEB 2023

Seizures of creepy marijuana from Colombia are popping around Latin America. But is the situation as creepy as it looks?…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…