AL ADAID: Officers from the National Coast Guard Service of Costa Rica were busy earlier this week in the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica as they intercepted a large shipment of compressed and vacuum-sealed marijuana aboard two motor vessels: one named “Leon” and the other “FIFA.”
Four suspects were detained in the operation, which started with maritime surveillance by means of visual search and radar monitoring. The Coast Guard officers detected a nighttime refueling at sea operation, which is often indicative of drug trafficking aboard small motor vessels. In this case, the two small boats were headed to the port city of Limon.
The two boats were taken in tow by the Coast Guard, but one did not make it and sunk; it is not clear whether the lost vessel was FIFA or Leon, but the incident recalled the time when the United States Navy frigate USS Rentz attempted to tow a cocaine smuggling vessel in the Pacific Ocean, but the towing operation instead resulted in a sinking.
At the same time the motor vessels FIFA and Leon were boarded in the Caribbean, the Coast Guard was involved in a similar operation on the opposite coast of Costa Rica. About 120 nautical miles off Golfito, officers stopped a large shipment of cocaine that was apparently bound for the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.
Both Caribbean and Pacific operations took place under very rainy conditions, a situation which is often preferred by drug smugglers since rainfall tends to diminish the detection performance of maritime radars. Coast Guard patrols during inclement weather tend to be riskier and not as frequent, which is another reason why traffickers recruit and train expert mariners who can maneuver in rough seas.
