Costa Rica News – Immigration issues and drug trafficking are the major causes of Costa Ricans being imprisoned abroad.
70% of Ticos in jails abroad are in the United States. There are 250 Ticos in US jails. However, 56 prisoners managed to return to Costa Rica to serve the sentence.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that in many cases Costa Rican prisoners spend between a month and 90 days in jail for immigration offenses, such as entering the country illegally in Arizona or Texas. They are then sent back to Costa Rica.
Other countries with Costa Rican prisoners are Panama (60), Nicaragua (30), Colombia (8), Cuba (7), Jamaica (5) and France (1). Most are for drug trafficking. Some in Jamaica are for illegal possession of firearms and entering the country illegally in small fishing boats.
In France, it was a domestic violence charge.
Some who are detained abroad do not alert the consuls because they want to hide the situation from their families.
Consuls contact relatives, check the state of health and provide legal guidance.
