Costa Rica Drug Seizures Top 74 Tonnes in a Record 2026 as Presidency Credits Work With the United States
Costa Rican President Laura Fernández chaired a session of the Fuerza Élite security coordination mechanism at the United States Embassy in San José on November 9, meeting Ambassador Melinda Hildebrand and United States anti-drug officials to agree on joint action against transnational criminal organisations. The Presidency of Costa Rica reported that the country has seized more than 74 tonnes of drugs in 2026, a historic record.
According to the Presidency's statement, Fernández met the ambassador together with officials from the embassy's Political Section and narcotics affairs office and from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The talks covered shared security goals, including drug seizures, coordinated operations between the two countries, action to curb drug use and the dismantling of transnational criminal organisations. The Presidency said the total of more than 74 tonnes shows that coordinated work under the Coalition Against the Cartels of the Americas and the Shield of the Americas is producing results.
The night before the statement, there was a major seizure at sea. The Ministry of Public Security said National Coast Guard officers, supported by a United States aircraft under the two countries' joint maritime surveillance arrangement, intercepted a speedboat on Sunday night 41 nautical miles southwest of Sierpe in Puntarenas Province, finding 1,140 packages of cocaine of about one kilogram each, roughly 1.1 tonnes in total. Two Colombian nationals and one Ecuadorian national on board were detained on international drug trafficking charges.
Fernández also announced a meeting on November 20 bringing together the heads of the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary and of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to address organised crime, another step in placing security coordination at the top level of the country's institutions.
Regional cooperation moved the same day. Fernández spoke by phone with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, and both leaders said their countries' security alliance has been very effective, standing together against narco-terrorism. Panama's Presidency reported that Fernández called the relationship with Panama a priority for Costa Rica, while Mulino invited her to the CAF International Forum on Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in Panama in January 2027.
(Source: Presidency of the Republic of Costa Rica)
Source: Presidency of the Republic of Costa Rica
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：哥斯达黎加太平洋沿岸 Puntarenas 海岸，海上拦截行动发生在该省外海。照片：Steve Knight，CC BY 4.0，经维基共享资源。 / Photo: The Pacific coast at Puntarenas, Costa Rica, off whose waters the interception took place. Photo by Steve Knight, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
