On Sunday, National Police were tipped off by the US and Costa Rican marine patrollers in the northwestern Guanacaste province that there was a suspicious boat off the coast of Playa Flamingo. 

Upon seeing the authorities on their way, the boat crew threw all of its cargo overboard, set fire to the boat, and ran towards the mountains.  Despite all of these efforts, the crew was caught and six 20 kilogram packages of cocaine were found floating out at sea. 

The National Police spotted the packages high out at sea and were the ones that followed the trails of candy wrappers and plastic bottles high into the mountains to catch these drug traffickers.  The Columbian men were found in a rocky area with a GPS device, satellite phone, cash, machete, suitcases, their passports, and a bag of provisions.  All five were arrested and ordered six months in preventative detention. 

According to the Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal, ¨The Columbian drug traffickers were in the wrong country; Costa Rica is not an extension of Columbia, and we are not going to allow them to operate here.¨ 

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on August 28th, 2007