On Thursday morning, the Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ) held a series of operations in the southern region, aimed at the confiscating of a number of assets owned by a man named Rivera Blandón, suspected of having links with organized crime.
According to Walter Espinoza, director of the OIJ, this person, aided by relatives, would have acquired a number of credits and pledges in banks to illegally obtain properties.
Espinoza explained the subject is known as a fisherman in Golfito, but he suddenly had several assets, including two cars of high economic value, two properties totaling more than 200 thousand square meters and a business called “Los Gemerlos”.
He has no significant income as a fisherman, he is not even registered. We have watched him and he does not go fishing, he does not perform this activity and he has no other known activity than drug trafficking. His reported income is not nearly enough to acquire any of the assets he has,”
said the official.
This person is linked to cocaine domestic and international trafficking. In 2014, he was found to be part of two illegal operations to transfer large amount of drugs by land and sea, but authorities were unable to arrest him and prove his direct participation. Then, in 2015, authorities confiscated 650 million colones and ten thousand dollars in a vehicle in Golfito, which was registered to a company owed by Rivera Blandón and his family.
The man was arrested on February 14th in Colombia and he could be transferred to the United States, at the request of the authorities of this country.