A report from the newspaper The New York Times Published on Sunday, September 15, it reported internationally that the lush tropical forests of Costa Rica have been infiltrated by drug cartels to create trafficking routes to evade authorities. The publication details the levels of penetration of criminal groups in regions such as the Costa Rican Caribbean.
The publication notes that Costa Rica, often considered one of the region’s most idyllic destinations, has long escaped the scourge of cartels. It even mentions that the national motto, “pura vida,” has for decades attracted honeymooners, yoga retreat attendees and birdwatching enthusiasts.
“But now, the lush forests that cover a quarter of Costa Rica are being infiltrated by drug cartels seeking new trafficking routes to evade authorities,” the report reads.
According to the American newspaper, Costa Rica surpassed Mexico to become the world’s leading transshipment point for cocaine destined for the United States, Europe and beyond in 2020according to the U.S. State Department. Mexico returned to the top spot last year, but Costa Rica is close behind.
With the rise in drug trafficking, the report adds, violence has increased. It cites, for example, that homicides in Costa Rica shot up 53% between 2020 and 2023, according to official figures.
“In Costa Rica, schools are becoming crime scenes, with parents gunned down while dropping off their children at school. Plastic bags filled with severed limbs have been discovered in parks. Recently, a patient was shot dead inside a hospital by members of a rival gang,” the text reads.
According to the publication, local gangs fight for control of routes within the country in a competition “of greed and cruelty,” says the article, to become the local muscle of rival Mexican criminal groups operating in Costa Rica, mainly the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, according to The New York Times.
“What we are witnessing is something we have never seen before. It is the Mexicanization of violence, to provoke terror and panic,” declared Mario Zamora Cordero, Minister of Public Security, to the foreign publication.
According to the paper, the gangs’ trafficking operation is “quite simple.” According to U.S. and Costa Rican officials, Colombia’s Gulf Clan, the main drug trafficking cartel there, transports cocaine across the Pacific in crudely constructed submarines to Costa Rica’s forested shores.
Traffickers then use dense tangles of mangroves intertwined with river channels and rainforests as a gateway into the country. About 70% of all drugs arriving in Costa Rica do so via its Pacific coast, according to the country’s coast guard. according to this Sunday’s publication.
Much of the cocaine is then transported overland by local groups working with Mexican cartels to a port on the country’s east coast, where is piling up in fruit exports destined for foreign countries.
Costa Rica seized 21 tons of cocaine last year, although Zamora said hundreds of tons pass through the country undetected annually.
“The Moín seaport was inaugurated for the first time in 2019. Just one year later, Costa Rica became the largest cocaine transshipment point in the world,” the report says, referring to the inauguration in February 2019 of the second berth at the Moín Container Terminal (TCM).
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Other fears
The publication notes that fentanyl is also beginning to infiltrate by recalling that in November 2023, local police, in collaboration with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, found and dismantled the first fentanyl laboratory from Costa Rica.
Many of the confiscated fentanyl pills were destined for the United States and Europe, according to a U.S. cable from the U.S. Embassy in San Jose, cited by The New York Times.
The report explains it in these terms: “Costa Rica is a priority target for cartels looking for new markets for fentanyl,” said the cable, which was marked as “sensitive” and sent to Washington last year. The organizations are determined to “transform Costa Rica into a new hub.”
However, the publication warns that the area where the “war on drugs” is taking place is the national parks, where the cartels encounter little resistance.
According to the paper, nearly 300 rangers are responsible for patrolling 1.3 million hectares of protected forest, equipped with weapons more suited to hunting small game than to countering the automatic machine guns and more sophisticated weaponry wielded by traffickers. The rangers also lack the authority to make arrests, it said.
At night, rangers are awakened several times a month by low-flying planes and helicopters that land illegally in the forest.
“We have no power to do anything about it,” Miguel Aguilar Badilla told The New York Timeswho leads a team that patrols 31,160 hectares in Tortuguero National Park.
