Costa Rica News – 70% of the fishermen arrested in the last four years for smuggling cocaine were receiving exempted diesel fuel.
The exemption is meant to strengthen the activity of fishermen by selling them diesel at almost half the regular cost.
On April 10, the Coast Guard found 410 kilos of cocaine hidden in the bow of a fishing vessel when it stopped four people who were transporting it. This was on the vessel Karen, which received cheap fuel.
Success 1 is a fishing boat on which six people brought 626 kilos of cocaine to Costa Rica. They fell in October in the Pacific of Colombia. Over the last two years, Costa Rica had subsidized 86,000 liters of diesel for the boat, saving the owner ¢15 million.
Goliath I was carrying two tons of the drug when found near Cocos Island in 2014. The State had gifted the owner ¢36 million in diesel.
Counting all the boats intercepted in the Pacific, there were 18,593 kilos of cocaine en route to Costa Rica.
On May 4, the Drug Control Police detained a Colombian man credited with being part of the narco group that recruited Ticos to smuggle in the drug.
