The Tico Connection: Costa Rica / Florida Heroin Traffic

Source: Wikimedia Commons

By Jaime Lopez

Author’s Note: There is a companion piece to this article published on or sister publication, The Costa Rica Star; it is about the fatal heroin overdose that took the life of a young expat from Florida in Jaco Beach. 

August 3rd, 2015 (ICR News) – Jose Carlos, a 40-something informal taxi driver from the southern suburbs of San Jose, works exclusively at night. His clients tend to be nocturnal creatures: musicians, security guards, nightclub employees, prostitutes, revelers, and drug users. Jose Carlos makes drug deliveries around the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish initials: GAM); crack and marijuana are his top sellers, followed by cocaine. In recent years however, he has noticed an increase in requests for heroin.

Jose has been interviewed by The Costa Rica Star once before in an article about the communities of Hatillo; on that occasion, he only spoke about crime and safety in that populous district of the capital city. This time, he agreed to talk about his drug dealing after he was informed about the death of Coady Brittain Nelson, who passed away after scoring a bag of heroin from a street dealer in Jaco Beach. At first, Jose did not want to talk about his life as a drug dealer, but then he asked questions about the Jaco Beach incident. He felt bad for the victim’s father and agreed to the interview.

Since Jose speaks in a colorful brand of Spanish that is heavy on the slang and allegory, it is better to transcribe parts of his interview in narrative format:

Jose has been driving an illegal taxi (known as a pirata) for a little over ten years. His prior occupation was that of a hopeless crack addict. A moment of clarity prompted him to give up that life:

I was the worst crackhead. I was a liar and a thief; I even lived in the streets for a stretch. Recovery was not easy but it was worth it. In a way, I gave up an addiction for another; I feel that I’m now hooked on making money.

My clients are not crackheads; I will not sell to people who are as bad as I used to be. I know my clients have jobs, money and, you know, normal lives; besides, I charge extra for the delivery and the dedicated service. In fact, I have cut off clients whom I see are getting out of control; I bitch them out because I don’t want them to hit rock bottom like I did, and I also want their steady business.

So about heroin: I don’t get that many requests, but I’m getting more now. I used to deliver often to a gringo in Santa Ana; it was a lot and he told me that he was using and reselling, so I used to front him. He was a good client but I think he went back home. Some students at the University of Costa Rica (in San Pedro) get both cocaine and heroin from me. We have this code when they call: They ask for a casado (traditional lunch in Costa Rica), but if it is very late at night they ask for a gallopinto (traditional breakfast in Costa Rica), but then I have to check: With carne (meat, whereby the letter C is for cocaine), or with huevo (eggs, whereby the letter H is for heroin).

The girls I drive to the Del Rey (a hotel and casino in San Jose where sexual tourists meet prostitutes) and to massage parlors often get cocaine and marijuana for themselves and their clients. So I front to the prostitutes whom I know are selling to their clients at a markup; these women sometimes meet guys from the United States and Europe who ask them for heroin, and the ones who stay here for a long time or live here I keep as clients. I cut off a guy from Texas because I could tell he was getting bad; I would get all this missed calls in the daytime when he knows I only work nights.

I was once approached by a guy from Florida who wanted to get 200 grams of heroin to take back home. He told me he could make a lot of money. We never did business, but he introduced me to a guy in Cartago who gets it from Colombia. I once drove 100 grams to Jaco Beach for that guy, I made $200 that day. I had him as a supplier for a while but he was in jail a couple of times and then left the country.

Heroin use is not very prevalent in Costa Rica, but its increase in recent years can be related to an increase in the United States. A 2006 report by the Narcotics and Addiction Institute (Spanish acronym: IAFA) explained that heroin was the drug of choice for less than one percent of all addicts; that report, however, acknowledged an uptick that had not been seen the mid 20^th century. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published a Drug Threat Assessment that included the following:

Heroin poses a threat to Florida. The drug is readily available, frequently abused, and the distribution of heroin is occasionally associated with violent crimes such as assault, drive-by shooting, and homicide. South American heroin is most prevalent; however, Mexican black tar heroin and brown powdered heroin also are available, although to a limited degree. Southeast and Southwest Asian heroin are rarely available in Florida. Miami and, to a lesser extent, Orlando are among the primary transportation hubs and transshipment points for South American heroin smuggled into the United States.

 

Couriers on commercial and private aircraft are the primary means by which South American heroin is smuggled into Florida; however, various other means also are used. Couriers smuggling South American heroin frequently arrive on direct flights from Colombia or take indirect flights to Miami or Orlando by transiting countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Jamaica, and Costa Rica.

It turns out that Florida and Costa Rica have been partners in the heroin trade for a couple of decades; to wit, this 1996 report from the Orlando Sentinel:

A former top Costa Rican immigration official and three others accused of trying to smuggle 6 pounds of Colombian heroin to New Jersey last month were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Orlando.

 

Rolando Ugalde-Arquedas, 35, fired last year as chief of Costa Rica’s immigration police, was charged with conspiring to possess and distribute heroin. Ugalde was arrested April 7 at a Howard Johnson’s motel near Kissimmee, where he went to meet with a courier who had been arrested three days earlier carrying heroin on a flight to Orlando International Airport.

Also charged [was] the courier, Franklin Garcia-Munoz, 19, [also] of Costa Rica.

Earlier this year, heroin took the life of Coady Brittain Nelson from Palatka, a sleepy Florida town near St. Augustine. Coady had come to Costa Rica to live with his father, Britt Nelson, and to get clean. Unfortunately, Coady found heroin on the streets of Jaco Beach just as easily as it may have been for him in Florida, perhaps even easier. In fact, a May 2015 article by Pete Skiba of the Palatka Daily News describes law enforcement action related to heroin:

A Miami-Dade County man brought the wrong kind of candy to the 3300 block of Crill Avenue on Saturday, deputies reported.

 

Putnam County Sheriff’s Drug and Vice Unit detectives reported arresting 35-year-old Rantrell Nicholas Madison and seizing a candy box holding a small amount of marijuana, 40 grams of crack cocaine and 20 grams of heroin.

According to the aforementioned DOJ report, there is a chance that Colombian heroin transported through Costa Rica could be making its way to international airports in Florida, such as Miami and Orlando, for further distribution across other communities of the Sunshine State, such as Palatka. Coady’s grieving father is worried about the dangers of heroin in his chosen beach community in Costa Rica, but he is also concerned about Florida. Last year, Mr. Skiba of the Palatka Daily News reported that heroin is the most harmful drug in that state, making up more than 92 percent of deaths by means of overdose.

In June of this year, ICR News reported the seizure of some $2 million worth of what authorities described as “highly pure” heroin near Cartago.  Costa Rica authorities said the heroin apparently came from Colombia and was eventually bound for the United States.