Drug Trafficking Agency Useless Chief Prosecutor Charges
The country's Fiscal General de la República (chief prosecutor), Francisco Dall'Anese, appeared before the Comisión Legislativa de Narcotráfico the legislative commission on drug trafficking - full of criticism and charges over the war on drugs.

The prosecutor sent darts aimed at the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas (ICD) - the drug enforcement agency - saying that the entity is useless.

The ICD was created in 2002 to fight the war on drugs by coordinating police efforts to follow the flow of drugs and money laundering, as well as instituting programs of drug use prevention and rehabilitation.

"If the ICD stays as it is, they can close the doors and nothing will change in the country, except saving the taxpayers ¢1 billion colones a year", said Dall'Anese.

The prosecutor criticized specifically the inefficiency of the ICD's financial investigations unit to track possible financial transactions related to the trafficking of illegal drugs.

"Supposedly the unit is to give us reports on the detection of money laundering to produce the proof evidence to obtain a conviction, but hey give us nothing", assured chief of the Ministerio Pubico.

Dall'Anese added that the ICD only has three analysts and lacks comptuers and other "modern" equipment to do its job.

The chief prosecutor showed his disgust at the large bureaucracy the police agency has and the failure to funnel money confiscated from drug traffickers to the other agencies, like the Fiscalía, the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) and the Policía de Control de Drogas (PCD).

"What we get is little. We aren't receiving the support and the drug trade is worse, a type of crime that generates more and more violent acts", said Dall'Anese.

Jorge Rojas, director of the OIJ, confirms the accusations by adding that it nearly impossible to work with the trafficking agents. And apart from that, the delinquents know all the vehicles used by the agency.

Both Dall'Anese and Rojas are calling for change. Federico Tinoco, president of the commission of drug trafficking said he supports the initiative by the government that will be made to the Legislature in the coming days.