Truck Full of Scrap Metal Used To Transport Drugs
The Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) has made a big dent in the fight against an organized group that used trucks full of scrap to hide drugs and cross international borders. The group would hide the illegal drugs in shipment of scrap metal to confuse border authorities.

The operations called "Cuarto de milla" (quarter mile) resulted in the first detention in an upper scale residential area of Lomas del Zurquí at a home valued at more than us$600.000 dollars. A man by his last name Zumbado, who claims to be a businessman, was the first to be arrested.

Police raided another home in Coronado and arrested another "businessman". Police had hoped to have detained four foreigners and two other Costa Ricans who they had been tracking their movements in and out of Costa Rica for some time.

The investigation began last July when OIJ agents confiscated some 688 kilos of drugs hidden in the load of scrap metal of a truck in the area of Liberia, south of the Nicaraguan border. A Costa Rican man who was driving the truck.
On August 11, OIJ officials confiscated 849 kilos of cocine, again hidden in a truck carrying scrap metal, as two Costa Ricans were arrested during that operation.

Both finds and the third blow by police on October 31 led to yesterdays raids and arrests. During the October 31 raid, police seized us$2 million dollars in cash that was hidden in a truck, again full of scrap metal.

Police are still on the trail of two Costa Ricans, a Colombian, a Mexican, a Panamanians and a Guatemalan, who are believed to be part of the operation.