Costa Rican fishermen caught with one ton of cocaine

November 30^th, 2012 (InsideCostaRica.com) Four Costa Rican fishermen were arrested while carrying 1,086 kilograms of cocaine on a Costa Rican-flagged fishing boat 346 miles southwest of Cabo Blanco, in the Pacific Ocean.

The men were arrested were the captain of the boat, a 40-year-old man by the last names of Acevedo Acevedo, a 43-year-old of last names Vega Parrales, Pizzarro Abarca, 33, and a young man, 21, of last names Reyes Castillo.

Martin Arias, Coastguard director, stated that the planning for the operation began three weeks ago, with information from Colombia and the United States.

“These drugs have a total market value of $60 million dollars,” he said.

The drugs apparently came from Colombia, and were en route to North America.

“We believe the drugs came from Colombia, but an Ecuadorian speedboat passed (the drugs) onto the Costa Rican boat. We have some clues that lead us to believe that a portion of the drugs were intended to stay in Costa Rica,” said Arias.

The fishermen will be taken to judicial authorities in two days, while the cocaine will arrive in Golfito on Saturday.

Correction:  This article has been corrected.  The original article stated, “a Costa Rican-flagged fishing boat 346 miles southeast of Cabo Blanco.” “Southeast” should have read “southwest.”  We regret the error.