More than $130 million worth of cocaine was seized by authorities in Costa Rica, the country’s biggest drug bust yet.
Authorities made the massive discovery on Saturday. The five tons of cocaine was packaged in smaller containers and hidden among decorative canopy plants in a shipping container at Costa Rica’s Caribbean port of Limon, according to Reuters.
The drugs, which investigators said originated from somewhere in South America, were driven to the shipping port by a Costa Rican man and were set to be sent to the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The 46-year-old man who allegedly drove the drugs to the port in Costa Rica has been arrested.
“It’s a historic seizure,” Costa Rica’s Security Minister Michael Soto said in a statement on Saturday. “It is a blow to the regional criminal structures.”
South America is a top source of drug trafficking, with most of the world’s cocaine originating there before being spread to major hubs in North America, Europe, and Asia for further distribution.
5 TONS OF COCAINE: Costa Rica authorities seize over $100 million worth of cocaine in the country’s largest drug bust ever. https://t.co/P8jluSbhso pic.twitter.com/wielcanBWI
— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) February 17, 2020
