Colombian Gang Recruited Costa Rican Fishermen To Haul Drugs
The Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) have been for some time after a Colombian gang that recruited Costa Rican fishermen and their fishing boats to haul drugs off the shores of Costa Rica, paying them up to us$3.000 dollars for each run that took from 15 to 22 days.

Monday, the OIJ made their first arrest of two Colombian nationals who are considered the leaders of the group and are now on the heels of five Costa Ricans tied to the group. A third member of the group was detained yesterday.

The arrest came after police raided the house of the Reina brothers in Tejar del Guarco in Cartago. Both men are being held as the responsible for the recruitment and payment to the fishermen who would be asked to carry, in addition to cocaine, fuel to boats in Pacific waters.

The two men were found by OIJ officials in a downtown San José hotel with some s$161.000 in cash.

The investigation began last January 21 when authorities confiscated 2.050 kilos of cocaine hidden in a Costa Rican fishing boat named Capitán David.

The arrest yesterday was of a Colombian national identified as Bolaños who worked at a used car sales lot in Altos de Peralta in Grecia, west of San José. OIJ officials confiscated 13 automobiles, a truck and three motorcycles during the raid, also finding two handguns on the premises.

According to the OIJ, the Reina brothers gang had purchased the Capitán David and other fishing boats, El Monkey, La Estrella de Sur and El Rey. The brothers would use the boats with a recruiting a Costa Rican crew to make their shipments, though their main business was selling fuel to boats in international waters, operating from the docks at Puntarenas.

Police say that once the fishing boats were loaded with the fuel and drugs, they pretended to be fishing, but in reality what they were waiting for is boats, loaded with drugs from Colombia and headed to the U.S. shores, needing fuel.