The Costa Rican police dismantled a gang of drug traffickers with links in Mexico and Guatemala, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) said yesterday.

“At the moment there have been 14 detained, after making 24 raids, and it is the first time that a narco-structure involved in all realms of drug trafficking within Costa Rica is disarticulated,” said the spokesman. The group had operations in five of the country’s provinces: Limón, Alajuela, Guanacaste, Puntarenas and San José.

The leader of the gang, who was arrested Tuesday in San José, is a Costa Rican of 41 years and surnamed García, with a history of using false documents, drug dealing, vehicle theft, illegal association, five counts of fraud, and illegal weapons possession.

The police seized García’s vehicle, two firearms, two chargers, a Nicaraguan identity card that had his photograph and the name of another person, as well as US$16,680, with which he tried to bribe the agents. When the officials refused, he upped his offer to a million U.S. dollars in exchange for his freedom; the police again refused, said police press officials.

The investigations began in early November 2014, and over the course of the investigation 10 others linked to the narco-structure have been arrested previously; all are Costa Rican, except for two Ecuadorians and one Colombian who were captured on a boat with drugs, according to official information.

The band had developed the capacity to buy all kinds of properties, build clandestine air strips, docks, warehouses, and other infrastructure for receiving, storing and shipping drugs and also money from Costa Rica.

Its leader, considered an “entrepreneur” because of the way the organization was structured and run, made the shipments mainly to Mexico, and also to Guatemala.

Drugs were sent by air, land and sea, hidden in all kinds of compartments and using a variety of methods, mainly to Mexico.

The drugs arrived by sea from Ecuador and Colombia, and boats were received both on the Caribbean and the Pacific coasts. Meanwhile, the drug was stored in warehouses located throughout Costa Rica before being shipped.

“Numerous properties, vehicles, boats and firearms were in the hands of this narco structure, including two airports or clandestine airstrips, facilities for supplying and loading aircraft and boats, among others,” according to the Ministry of Security.

During the investigation, the police seized 3,150 kilos of cocaine, two million dollars, and two boats that supplied fuel and transported drugs.