The Minister of Public Security, Michael Soto, held a press conference this Wednesday morning to offer details on the operations and work being done by the different police bodies in the country to battle drug trafficking by air, ground and sea.

According to the information offered by Soto, between all police bodies the number of cocaine seized so far this year reached 15 tons 208.29 kilograms which totals almost 500 million dollars USD (Yes your reading that number right).

“It is important to highlight the joint work carried out by the different police bodies, among them the Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ), the Direction of Intelligence and Security (DIS), the Frontier Police, Drug Control Police (PCD), Aerial Surveillance Service, National Coast Guard Service, and Public Police Force as well as the assistance of United States in joint patrolling”, stated Soto.

Just last week in four different operations carried out in the Pacific coast, authorities arrested 17 people, and seized 3,779 kilograms of cocaine.

In 2017 the police seized a little over 30 tons of cocaine, a record number for the year.

Costa Rica is a transit route for cocaine usually produced in South America and sent to the United States. According to estimations by the Organism of Judicial Investigation (OIJ) and the Drug Control Police, in Costa Rica a kilogram of cocaine has a price of approximately $8,000.00 USD, while in the United States the same quantity can sell for approximately $35,000.00 USD and in Europe $60,000 USD.