By Wendy Anders

If you’re planning to bring more than $10,000 in cash or securities into Costa Rica on your next trip, be sure to declare it on your customs form, said Costa Rican customs officials yesterday.

This oversight by a 70-year-old U.S. man, who was heading to the beach in Costa Rica, cost him US$19,900, said the Finance Ministry’s Customs Department.

The man, who entered the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Liberia in northern Costa Rica earlier this month, had the money, and his luggage, seized by customs officials when they discovered he had failed to report the large quantity of greenbacks on his customs form.

Article 35 of Law 8204, which regulates money laundering and terrorist financing, requires anyone entering Costa Rica with more than US$10,000, or its equivalent in securities or in another currency, in cash to voluntarily declare the amount they are carrying or else face immediate seizure and loss of the money, said the Finance Ministry.

The money was retained and deposited in a special account set up by the Costa Rican Institute on Drugs (ICD) for such situations, said Benito Coghi, General Director of Costa Rican Customs.