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Cocaine seizures down in Costa Rica in 2022

Data from the Drug Control Police (PCD) shows that last year was one of the lowest periods in seizures of this drug since 2018, when there were 30,085 tonnes, and a far cry from the 72.8 tonnes seized in 2020, a historic one record country.

The director of the PCD, Stephen Madden, consulted by the digital news CRHoy.com, attributed this decrease in cocaine seizures to a greater police presence in the ports of the Caribbean province of Limón, the main exit points for this drug, the largest hypermarkets that United States and Europe.

Madden also mentioned a drop in sea interdictions carried out by the National Coast Guard Service (SNG) as – he stated – seizures increased in South America and there was a possible change in the drug route to North America, leading to an increase in alerts in Honduras.

Although this result caught his attention, the director of the PCD described it as positive for the work done.

However, CRHoy.com recalls that in June 2022, the Minister of Public Security, Jorge Torres, announced a change in the institution’s strategy in the prosecution of drug trafficking and since then has been more dedicated to dismantling the internal structures of drug trafficking than to the operations against international transmission.

The decrease in cocaine seizures in 2022 could also have had an impact on this change in strategy in the fight against illicit trafficking in this drug.

Official data also shows that Costa Rica recorded a seizure of 26.5 tons of marijuana in 2022, up nine percent from the same previous phase.

Madden claimed they saw an increase in marijuana, which is practically the highest seizure year in history at more than two tons compared to 2021.

Likewise, according to 2022 statistics, the Public Force made 188,928 arrests, 135 of them at sea, seized seven fishing boats (usually used to transport narcotics into state territory), 42 speedboats with up to four engines, 32 weapons and 18,000 760 liters of fuel.

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