The illegal importation of goods into Costa Rica has been keeping law enforcement agencies on their toes over the last few years. Drug trafficking is but a tiny portion of the vast and flourishing smuggling realm in Costa Rica, which has grown to include over-the-counter and prescription medications, designer clothing, premium liquor, handcrafts, herbal remedies, cows, and even cheap brands of beer from the United States.

 

Customs, Border Police and Fuerza Publica officers assigned to our land borders with Nicaragua and Panama have seen quite an increase in the frequency and diversity of the goods being smuggled into Costa Rica. Just a few years ago, law enforcement officers at border crossing points regularly seized controlled substances such as cocaine hydrochloride, marijuana and different formulations of amphetamines; these illegal drugs were followed by cash, booze and cigarettes in terms of smuggled items. Times have changed, however, and smugglers are now focusing on items of more popular consumption.

 

Earlier today, Fuerza Publica officers assigned to the northern border crossing at Peñas Blancas, province of Guanacaste, confiscated the following:

 

• 25 bottles of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals
• 13 cartons of cigarettes
• 19 (quite fetching and colorful) handcraft souvenirs made from clay

 

The would-be smugglers were all from Nicaragua, and one of them was detained by immigration officers for allegedly trying to enter the country without identification documents. In April, The Costa Rica Star reported on an attempted case of rustling and smuggling:

 

officers on patrol in the Los Chiles canton noticed a four-wheel drive station wagon with an unusual cargo: Three calves weighing approximately 110 kilograms each. The human occupants of the vehicles were three Nicaraguan men, who were arrested on suspicion of cattle theft with the intent of smuggling across the border. Alas, the youngest calf did not survive the cramped conditions inside the station wagon as one of the rustlers sat on top of it.

 

Also back in April, but this time in the southern border:

 

Fuerza Publica officers checking vehicle traffic arriving from Panama stopped a suspicious sedan and discovered a cache of booze, which included whiskey, vodka and cases of Old Milwaukee (fondly known as Old Swill) and Milwaukee’s Best (often called “the Beast”).

 

Other unusual items being intercepted at the border include groceries and even fruit juice. It is reasonable to believe that smuggling in Costa Rica is bound to continue in light of uncontrolled inflation and financial pessimism in the country often called the most expensive in Latin America.