Muffadal Saylawa, Founder and CEO of Oro Chocolate, was en route to Chocoa, Europe’s largest sustainable chocolate convention, when disaster struck. He was traveling well-prepared, having bought plane tickets to Amsterdam, booked an airb&b, rented a booth at the convention, and recruited his sister to help with sales – Muffadal was filled with hope for taking his gourmet chocolate company to the next level of world domination. Instead, he ended up arrested for narco-trafficking in February in Costa Rica, accused of drug smuggling and under detention for four months. Saylawa is American.

Muffa put his bags, full of beautifully wrapped gourmet chocolates, through the scanner at Liberia Airport. The Costa Rican customs official asked, “What drugs are you carrying in there?” Muffa answered cheerfully, “It’s chocolate!” Those were probably his last happy words for four months, as he battled the Costa Rican legal system and drug enforcement authorities to regain his freedom. Customs officials thought his chocolate looked “suspicious”, and decided to test them for drugs. They tested positive!

Saylawa remembers authorities field testing his chocolates, “It was the first time I ever saw a field test machine in my life. There are three tubes and a chemical reagent inside that changes colors depending on what you put in.” His chocolates tested negative for cocaine, but positive for marijuana. He was strip searched and interrogated. Meanwhile, Muffa Googled False Positive Marijuana Chocolate and discovered that almost all chocolates test positive for marijuana. He begged customs officials to test any Hershey chocolate bar from airport gift shop to see that they would also test positive. He pointed out that taking marijuana to Amsterdam was like taking coal to Newcastle – ridiculous.

In the middle of the night of his arrest, Muffa met his court-appointed public defender. She was being encouraged by the court to persuade Muffa to take a plea bargain in order to avoid 20 years in Costa Rican prison. He refused.

Forty hours after being taken into custody, Muffa was allowed to call his father for help. His father managed to hire a good private lawyer who got him out of jail, but into house arrest in Liberia with a “tobillera”, an ankle bracelet with a GPS device. He posted bail, and surrendered his passport. By this time the COVID-19 pandemic had hit Costa Rica. Saylawa began to despair about how long it would take him to return to his chocolate factory and family in San Juan de Dios, Nicaragua.

Finally on April 23^rd, results came back from the OIJ forensic drug lab, proving that there was absolutely no marijuana in the chocolates Muffa was carrying. His case was dismissed. He received no apology, no offer of restitution for damage done to both his business and reputation, no offer to reimburse him for money lost in legal expenses and trip cancellation. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but he was free at last.

Muffa found it almost impossible to find his way back to Nicaragua, as the pandemic had closed the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. He was turned away twice at the land border due to COVID-19 restrictions. At the end of May he was able to charter a small plane to take him home.

Saylawala is still regrouping after his nightmare Costa Rican experience. He is grateful that his father was able to get him released from prison. Costa Rican prison is probably the worst place to be during the coronavirus pandemic, and he knows many others do not have the financial means or connections to negotiate their release. He reflects on his experience thusly, “If by chance it hasn’t become clear to you that we live in a society built on misguided systemic injustice riddled with conflicting interests, please consider what happened to me. I was arrested for fucking chocolate.”

Muffa is back at work making incredible gourmet chocolates, and wrapping them in his signature gold foil wrappers, hoping none of them will ever be assaulted by customs officials. You can read the story of how Oro Chocolates are made at orochocolate.com

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