Costa Rica’s security ministry announced the seizure of 3.1 tonnes of marijuana in Liberia, Guanacaste, a load it said came from Mexico.[1] Officers found the drug at a fiscal warehouse in Liberia, in a container carried by a Guatemalan truck driver.[1] The Drug Control Police and the Air Surveillance Service found the load during an inspection at the Aduana La Anexión fiscal warehouse at Daniel Oduber International Airport, working from the evening of Friday 2 September to the morning of Saturday 3 September 2022.[2] Officers detained the driver after he appeared nervous and the declared weight did not match the declared load of rubber from Mexico, and a sniffer dog confirmed the presence of drugs.[2]

The ministry gave the weight as 3.1 tonnes and as 3,168 kg, which police took away.[2] La Nación put the load’s value on the local market at about 9,500 million colones and said the truck had crossed several Central American countries to reach Costa Rica.[3] Deputy security minister Martín Arias called the Mexican origin atypical, because marijuana normally reaches Costa Rica from Jamaica across the Caribbean or from Colombia across the Pacific.[1] The cargo may have set out from Guadalajara, according to the Teletica report.[1]

Security analyst Álvaro Ramos called the seizure “extremely striking” because of its size and Mexican origin, and warned that those controlling a higher-grade import market would generate much more violence.[1] Former attorney-general Osvaldo Henderson agreed that rising domestic consumption and the quality of marijuana grown elsewhere explain these imports.[1] Henderson said the drug leaves so much money that international trafficking organizations can bribe Central American authorities to avoid the inspections they should face.[1]

A local court ordered the driver held in preventive detention for six months while the investigation continues.[1] La Nación reported that the driver faces eight to 15 years in prison under current legislation.[3]