On June 21, 2017, the former head of the Costa Rica Public Force (Fuerza Publica) was detained and arrested near Orotina for possible drug smuggling. Pizarro and three others were stopped on Highway 27, at Kilometer 57, in the Province of Alajuela. They were traveling in a truck with a false truck bed which contained 237 kilograms of cocaine.

Pizarro was appointed Director of the Fuerza Publica in 2007 under the Oscar Arias Administration, and had served prior to that appointment as the Head of the Costa Rican Border Patrol. This position gave him intimate knowledge of northern routes through Costa Rica, and knowledge of drug interdiction methods and patterns. This knowledge made him an ideal choice to serve as logistics chief for drug smugglers, some say possibly even for the Mexican drug cartel.

Pizarro’s first known connection to the illicit drug trade was in 2009, when a helicopter went down over Cerro de La Muerte in the Southern Zone, and Pizarro was miraculously the first person on the scene. Rumor was that the helicopter was carrying 380 kilograms of cocaine, but none was found by authorities, and the plane GPS was removed before the police arrived.

Also detained recently with Pizarro (51 years old), were Monterrey Potoi (42), Castillo Mora (54) the driver of the truck, and a Mexican named Pineda Hernandez (46).

This bust was part of “Operacion Patria” which was begun in May of 2011 after an arrest involving 430 kilograms of cocaine. Also found at the recent arrest scene were a GPS, night vision goggles, two-way radios, and one gun. Pizarro had been under surveillance by the OIJ for apparently quite some time.

Pizarro received extensive press coverage in 2010, following the mysterious death of multi-millionaire John Felix Bender, who died in his bedroom of a single bullet wound to the back of his head. Bender’s wife Ann Patton Bender was accused of his murder, and Jose Pizarro was the head of security at the Bender estate in Florida de Baru, Southern Zone, at that time. Pizarro testified at all three of Ann’s trials.