The constant drug confiscations and the criminal reality in the region make the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and the Drug Control Administration think about increasing their operations in the country.
This was revealed by Gustavo Mata, Minister of Public Security, after returning from the US and a tour as part of the cooperation agreement for the benefit of his portfolio.
They would be adding more officers of the DEA in Costa Rica, in order to perform more and better jobs. They saw all the platform we are trying to set up in the country (airplanes, radars, and boats) and that pleases them,”
said the hierarch.
The Ministry of Public Security (MSP) seized 29.8 tons of cocaine in 2017. It is the highest figure in history. According to the estimates of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) and the Drug Control Police (PCD), in Costa Rica one kilo of cocaine is worth nearly $8 thousand (almost ¢ 5 million) and in the United States -the main market- it can be up to $35 thousand.
On the CIA, Mata said that
they expressed the possibility of adding more officers in the country”
because that will give greater success to the intelligence work being carried out.
When asked if the interest of international agencies is due to a concern of foreign governments about the criminal reality in Costa Rica, the minister assured that the matter should be viewed from a regional perspective.
Is the US worried? So are we. We have information and evidence that Colombia has tripled the production of coca leaf and that causes an increase in cocaine trafficking to North America (…) The problem is not only in Costa Rica, it is regional,”
said Mata.
The minister also said he will build the structure to fight crime in the coming years, referring to the purchase of a King Air 50 aircraft, he official refers to the purchase processes of a King Air 50 aircraft for air patrols against drug trafficking and illegal fishing, five new surveillance vessels, and the donation of a King Air F90 aircraft by the US as part of a joint security agreement signed in 2016 between Luis Guillermo Solís and Barack Obama.