On Monday, José Fabio Pizarro Espinoza, former director of the Public Force during the second Oscar Arias government, pled guilty of international drug trafficking crimes and underwent an abbreviated procedure in which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Criminal Court of Santa Cruz, Guanacaste.
Pizarro Espinoza was convicted along with a Mexican citizen identified as Víctor Hugo Pineda Hernández, who received the same sentence.
The former director of the Public Force was in charge of providing logistical and operational support to a gang that transported drugs by land from different parts of the country to Guanacaste, where it was taken to North America via small planes.
Between February and June of 2017, the accused integrated a gang to buy cocaine and take it to Santa Cruz. The investigation revealed that the subjects did it in vehicles that were modified with the creation of compartments to prevent the discovery of the drug. The evidence obtained by the prosecution found that the drugs were taken to clandestine tracks in Guanacaste, in order to get them out of the country using small planes,”
said the Public Prosecutor’s Office, through an official statement.
Pizarro and Pineda were arrested in July2017, when they were traveling in two vehicles with 237 kilos of cocaine and two machine guns, on Route 27, in Orotina.
Pizarro was also investigated for creating a paramilitary group known as ‘Patrol 1856’, which had the apparent objective of collaborating with the defense of the sovereignty of the country during the conflict with Nicaragua on Isla Portillos.
Pizarro called himself the commander-in-chief and awarded diplomas to his pupils.