Tuesday morning, different police forces carried out a series of raids to dismantle a criminal gang dedicated to migrant trafficking.
The efforts extended to different points of the country, such as the Southern Zone, the provinces of San José, Heredia, and Alajuela, in particular in the Los Chiles sector, the northernmost sector of the country, on the border with Nicaragua.
According to the details of the director of the Immigration Police, Enrique Arguedas, some 101 people are alleged to have been transported by this organization since January of last year.
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The nationalities transported ranged from Syrians to Nicaraguans.
From Costa Rica authorities, “These people were recruited in Ecuador, so it is a transnational network that operated in several countries and transported them through Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and the rest of Central America.
“The estimated amounts they charged for each of these people had a base of US$13 thousand and from there the price rose according to the service that people could pay in transit.”
The investigation began in January 2023, culminating in the raids carried out by the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ), the Fuerza Publica (National Police) and the Immigration Police.
“It is a complex human trafficking scheme. This is the Costa Rican phase of an international operation,” said Mario Zamora, Costa Rica’s Minister of Security.
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There are reports that United States authorities provided Costa Rican authorities with help with the investigation.
The aim is to stem the growing flow of migrants seeking to reach the United States through Latin America. Despite a recent decrease, tens of thousands of migrants each month cross the treacherous Darien Gap jungle passage between Panama and Colombia on their long journey north, crossing into Costa Rica from Panama and according to a report by Confidencial, a former official at the Managua airport in Nicaragua, revealed the “modus operandi” of charter flights, as a springboard for irregular migration to the United States.
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