Four Suspects
Detained In Cocaine Shark Shipment From
Costa Rica
The Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) said
they
arrested four suspected members of a gang
that was sending cocaine to Mexico inside of
frozen shark carcasses, following an
investigation that began last February and
came to light this week with the seizure of
893 kilos (1,967 pounds) of the drug in a
Mexican port.
OIJ director, Jorge Rojas, said that the
drug-trafficking ring was made up of
“nationals and foreigners” and operated in
Puntarenas.
Rojas said that the group has sent several
shipments in the past, shipments believed to
contain drugs, but that no arrests or
searches were made for lack of sufficient
evidence against those involved.
Rojas said that the idea was to nab all the
members of the gang and said that the
confiscation in Mexico “did not affect”
investigations in Costa Rica.
In the operation authorities were able to
capture four people, part of a gang headed
by a Costa Rican man identified as Costa
Rican Sigifredo
Ceciliano, who earlier this week admitted to
selling the 38 tons of shark to Mexican
national, Francisco Pozos Lepe, who appeared
like any other normal buyer and was paid by
bank wire transfer.
Rojas did not specify how many were in the
drug ring, but judicial officials told the
local press that they are looking for two
Mexicans Pozos and the other identified
simply as Jorge.
“Some of them could already be outside the country,”
Rojas said.
The man named Ceciliano, captured Saturday
at the Juan Santamaria (San Jose)
International Airport, minutes before he was
to board a flight to Quito, is the owner of
ships that brought the sharks from Ecuador
to a dock in Puntarenas, where they were
filled with cocaine for their subsequent
shipment to Mexico.
Rojas, who gave no details about the others
who were taken into custody nor where the
drug originally came from, regretted that
Costa Rica lacks sufficient vigilance at
ports, airports and borders to stop these
drug shipments.
“There is obviously a great lack of control.
Costa Rica has to pay more attention to
this,” he said.
The authorities are continuing their
investigations to nab more suspects.
The drug shipment hidden in shark carcasses
was discovered Tuesday in Progreso, a port
in the southeastern Mexican state of
Yucatan, following an x-ray check of several
containers arriving on a vessel that took on
cargo in Costa Rica.
When they opened one of the frozen whole
sharks, navy personnel found black plastic
bags containing rectangular packs of
cocaine.
The Juzgado Penal de Puntarenas ordered the
four suspects to six months preventive
detention while the investigation continues.
|
