Identifying organized groups engaged in drug trafficking is increasingly difficult. Leaders have become less visible and are recruiting more young people to distribute drugs, and they are using technology to contact international groups and even learn foreign behaviors that were not common in the country.
In Costa Rica, drug confiscations increased to record levels, which shows the increase in the consumption of substances such as cocaine and marijuana. This generates exorbitant profits for the criminal structures, not to mention gang warfare which is one of the main factors that influence the wave of homicides that currently hits the country.
The director of the OIJ said that they have identified a greater participation of frontmen, a variety of logistic actions (air, sea and land), as well as a greater disposition of weapons among criminals. Similarly, Espinoza said that the judicial police has been changing its methods, as there are groups that study and prepare to evade investigations.
Jorge Torres, ai director of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) previously explained that drug trafficking penetrated the national society and it is no longer easy to identify the leaders behind the business.
We managed to dismantle a group and it reassembles very quickly. When the phenomenon is analyzed, it is already immersed in a community. It has already taken all the trade,”
said Torres.
The hierarch said that the phenomenon is very focused on cantonal scales which makes it more difficult to detect the leaders of the organization. In addition, with millionaire profits, they begin to impact the social, historical and even cultural spheres of the communities.