By Wendy Anders

Yesterday morning, Costa Rican police carried out 13 simultaneous raids throughout the country after a 9-month investigation on a gang dedicated to stealing the content of containers arriving and leaving the country’s ports.

Among those arrested in connection with the group’s criminal activities are two police officials from Matina, Limón, said the Judiciary Investigative Agency (OIJ).

The OIJ estimates the group has been operating for at least a year, and is believed to be responsible for a series of large thefts of coffee, tires, domestic appliances, medical supplies and other items entering and leaving the country.

Yesterday’s arrests were made in Matina, Limón, Alajuela, Heredia, and Desamparados – a southern San José district, according to the OIJ spokesman, Michael Soto.

In total, 18 people have been arrested in connection to the group, including the group’s alleged leader, a young Costa Rican from Limón by the last names Acuña Soto, alias ‘Chupas’. Police are still searching for two lower-level gang members, and two are already in custody for related crimes.

During the arrests stolen merchandise, cash in U.S. and Costa Rican currencies, 3 weapons, tools for opening containers, and also tags used when sealing containers were seized along with documents related to the group’s activities, said the OIJ.

The band presumably used different techniques to intercept trailers hauling ship containers and their merchandise on the country’s main routes including Route 32, connecting San José with Limón, and Route 27, between San José and the Pacific port of Caldera.

In some cases they assaulted trucks carrying the desired products, said the OIJ, whereas in others they simulated assaults on trucks whose drivers were apparently complicit with the gang’s activities. Items were then moved to storage sheds and placed in the local market.

The group accessed information on the merchandise entering and leaving the country through the automated TICA system used by exporters and importers to register their products, said the OIJ. This allowed them to plan their thefts and set up redistribution routes to sell the products locally.

In one recent case of stolen coffee from Grecia, the high-quality export coffee was removed from a container ready for export and replaced with bags of sand to maintain the original weight. The coffee was then allegedly mixed in with other coffee for local consumption, and packed for sale in Costa Rica. According to the OIJ, the gang had a coffee-tasting expert aid them in blending the stolen coffee so that its presence wouldn’t be detected.

In mid-July, 250 sacks of export-quality coffee valued at about US$65,000 and destined for Oklahoma, U.S. were reported to have ‘disappeared’ on their way from Grecia to the Moín port, reported El Diario Extra, Costa Rica’s Spanish tabloid.

At least 150 OIJ police, 15 judges, and 15 prosecutors were involved in the investigation aimed at bringing down this theft ring.