Six held as Costa Rica stops two narco-boats with cocaine, marijuana
Costa Rican coast guards detained six men aboard two go-fast boats off Bahía Ballena de Osa on 9 July 2026, including three men on a second boat carrying cocaine and marijuana. The first boat held more than 2.5 tonnes of cocaine presumed bound for the United States, while no separate cannabis weight was published.
🇨🇷 Bahía Ballena de Osa, Puntarenas · Costa Rica
Arrested
6
Costa Rican authorities intercepted drug boats in an operation off Bahía Ballena
de Osa in southern Costa Rica after detecting a suspicious vessel and pursuing
it.[1]The first boat was moving drugs on 9 July when it was stopped in the
Pacific.[1]Officers detained two Ecuadorians, aged 28 and 34, alongside a
third detainee of Colombian nationality aboard that first boat.[1]Officers
detained three other men aboard a second boat that was also moving cocaine and
marijuana.[1]
Officers found more than 2.5 tonnes of cocaine aboard that boat, presumed bound
for the United States.[1]Some seized parcels bore the legend “Made in
Colombia. Lo mejor de Caro Quintero” with a photo of Mexican trafficker Rafael
Caro Quintero.[1]
Costa Rican authorities said the seizures were possible through intelligence
shared with Colombia’s Navy and Panamanian authorities.[1]The United States’
Joint Interagency Task Force South provided air support that helped locate the
suspected boats in Pacific waters.[1]Costa Rica presented the operation as
part of the ‘Escudo de las Américas’ anti-drug strategy promoted by Donald
Trump.[1]
No separate weight was published for the marijuana aboard the second boat, and the reported 2.5 tonnes refers to cocaine aboard the first boat, so no cannabis kilograms are recorded.
The names, ages, nationalities and legal status of the three men detained aboard the second boat were not published.
No charges, custody decision or court outcome for any of the six detainees were reported.
Only one accessible account of this operation could be opened, so no second source confirms the second boat's mixed load.
The page's two photographs show the cocaine boat and part of the seized drug load and do not separately identify a cannabis seizure, so no media entry is included.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Primicias: The first boat was a 38-foot nauta-type launch fitted with three 250-horsepower outboard motors whose crew tried to escape before the coast guard caught them.
Fuerza Pública officers seized nine packs and 158 doses of suspected marijuana plus cash at the Miraflores dike in Taras, Cartago, after three suspects fled. The mixed seizure also contained crack, cocaine, tusi and ecstasy and was handed to judicial authorities.
Costa Rica's Fuerza Pública detained a man in Grecia, Alajuela, on the first night of its Halloween operation after police said he was carrying marijuana, cocaine and crack, and seized the same three drugs and ₡655,000 in cash in Palmares. The operation deployed 1,500 officers for Halloween and the Día de la Mascarada Costarricense.
During a preventive patrol on 26 October 2026 Costa Rica’s border police, air surveillance and drug-control police, under Liberia prosecutors, raided a Cañas Dulces property used as a cannabis nursery, seized 197 plants and 50 kg of processed material and held a 40-year-old Colombian suspect named Samboni.
After a 911 alert in Corazón de Jesús, San José, Costa Rican police found cannabis on a table, then raided a controlled-environment grow on 10 September 2026, detaining five people and seizing 53 plants and more than 3.8 kg of processed marijuana.
