San José (AFP) – Costa Rica dismantled this Tuesday a fentanyl production and trafficking organization, the first to be dismantled in Central America, in an operation that left four detainees and 1,100 doses were confiscated, reported the Minister of public security (Ministry of the Interior). Mario Zamora.
First change: November 21, 2023 – 10:11 p.m. Last change: November 21, 2023 – 10:09 p.m
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“It raises all alarms because it already confirms the presence of fentanyl in the Costa Rican drug market,” said Zamora, indicating that it is the first gang of its kind to be dismantled in the region.
During the operation, conducted jointly with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), authorities searched three homes in San Jose and surrounding cities.
Four people – three from Costa Rica and one from Colombia – were arrested and a fifth is wanted for arrest.
The drug was produced in pill form based on paracetamol and fluorofentanyl and was sold in various bars in the capital and surrounding areas without warning that it was this narcotic, the ministry reported.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin. In the United States, it accounted for a majority of the nearly 110,000 overdose deaths in 2022.
“It is the most powerful drug currently on the market, surpassing even heroin,” said Costa Rican Attorney General Carlos Díaz.
In November, Honduran authorities seized a shipment of nearly half a ton of vials of liquid fentanyl on a ship that left the United Kingdom, bound for Colombia and then arrived in Honduras.
Last March, Panamanian authorities announced the loss of thousands of doses of this drug from the warehouses of the main public health and social security institution.
Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer, is also accused by the United States of being part of the fentanyl smuggling chain into that country.
© 2023 AFP