All About Costa Rica

NEWS

5 Animals Used to Smuggle Drugs in Latin America

ARGENTINA / 7 MAY 2021

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.

Costa Rica Cocaine Theft Ring Relies on Crooked Agents

COCAINE / 13 APR 2021

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…

Organized Real Estate Fraud Rings Threaten Property Owners in Costa Rica

COSTA RICA / 6 APR 2021

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.

Human Smuggling Thrives Between Costa Rica and Nicaragua

COSTA RICA / 15 JAN 2021

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…

Why Courtroom Corruption Has Costa Rica Concerned

COCAINE / 6 JAN 2021

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…

GameChangers 2020: The Resurgence of the Central American Cocaine Highway

CACHIROS / 28 DEC 2020

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…

Demand for Illegal Alcohol Claiming Hundreds of Lives Across Region

CONTRABAND / 3 NOV 2020

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…

Fake Turtle Eggs With GPS Trackers Seek Rollout Across Latin America

COSTA RICA / 26 OCT 2020

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,…

Salvatore Ponzo and the Italian Mafia’s Infiltration of Costa Rica

COCAINE / 6 OCT 2020

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…

Costa Rica Passes Law to Destroy Illegal Runways on Private Property

COCAINE / 29 SEP 2020

A new law in Costa Rica, that looks to destroy illegal landingstrips, could provide an opportunity to control flights and close the country’s airways for drug traffickers. Nevertheless, reducing the…

Costa Rica Boosts Plan to Track Vessels, Combat Illegal Fishing

COSTA RICA / 15 SEP 2020

By providing satellite data on its fleets, Costa Rica is the latest country in Latin America to take on illegal fishing, which costs billions of dollars and taxes already over-exploited…

Sophisticated Schemes Revealed in Costa Rica Gold Ring

COSTA RICA / 2 SEP 2020

Raids across Costa Rica have exposed a web of front companies filtering illegally mined gold to the United States, in the kind of multimillion-dollar laundering scheme not typically associated with…

Human Smugglers Could Benefit From Costa Rica-Nicaragua Silence

COSTA RICA / 29 APR 2020

Costa Rica has enhanced border security during the coronavirus pandemic to crack down on human smuggling from Nicaragua, but its measures are undermined by a lack of communication between the…

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About InSight Crime

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4 FEB 2021

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THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Events – Border Crime: The Northern Triangle and Tri-Border Area

ARGENTINA / 25 JAN 2021

Through several rounds of extensive field investigations, our researchers have analyzed and mapped out the main illicit economies and criminal groups present in 39 border departments spread across the six countries of study – the Northern Triangle trio of Guatemala, Honduras, and El…

BRIEF

InSight Crime’s ‘Memo Fantasma’ Investigation Wins Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize

COLOMBIA / 20 NOV 2020

The staff at InSight Crime was awarded the prestigious Simón Bolívar national journalism prize in Colombia for its two-year investigation into the drug trafficker known as “Memo Fantasma,” which was…

ANALYSIS

InSight Crime – From Uncovering Organized Crime to Finding What Works

COLOMBIA / 12 NOV 2020

This project began 10 years ago as an effort to address a problem: the lack of daily coverage, investigative stories and analysis of organized crime in the Americas. …

ANALYSIS

InSight Crime – Ten Years of Investigating Organized Crime in the Americas

FEATURED / 2 NOV 2020

In early 2009, Steven Dudley was in Medellín, Colombia. His assignment: speak to a jailed paramilitary leader in the Itagui prison, just south of the city. Following his interview inside…

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