The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, April 26, 2004

PINEAPPLES continue to be one of the country’s most dynamic export sectors. The cash crop helped exports grow during the first trimester of this year, according to the Central Bank.
Tico Times Photo/AFP

Donation from United States
Helps Combat Drug Trafficking
The U.S. government is hoping to further restrict the flow north of drugs and illegal firearms from Central and South America by cutting them off at Costa Rica’s northern border crossing of Peñas Blancas.
(Click for more)

Costa Rican Exports
Continue to Grow
Costa Rican exports grew 4.2% during the first trimester of this year, according to the Central Bank.
(Click for more)

April 26

The Tico Times sends best wishes to all secretaries on Secretary’s Day!

INTERSEK Sports Event
Event includes basketball, soccer, ping pong, swimming and volleyball, April 26-30, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Colegio SEK in Coronado. Info: 272-5464.

The Fantasticks
Produced by the newly formed Dominical Little Theatre, an off-Broadway musical that played for more than four decades in New York and around the world is being performed in English at Dominical Beach, April 26, 27, 28 and May 2, 3, 4 at the Hotel Roca Verde in Dominical. Info: 787-8007, 308-8855, www.Dominical.Biz/theater

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Donation from United States
Helps Combat Drug Trafficking
By Rebecca Kimitch
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

The U.S. government is hoping to further restrict the flow north of drugs and illegal firearms from Central and South America by cutting them off at Costa Rica’s northern border crossing of Peñas Blancas.

The U.S. Embassy and Ministry of Public Security on Friday unveiled a new office building and infrastructure for the search of vehicles suspected of transporting drugs, firearms or other illegal merchandise. The station was built with a $703,000 donation from the United States.

Peñas Blancas is the only place trucks and other large vehicles can cross between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, according to the Ministry of Security. The crossing has huge strategic importance in the fight against land-based drug trafficking, considering all material has to pass through Costa Rica, Public Security Minister Rogelio Ramos told an audience at Friday’s inauguration.

“This is an expression of the international cooperation in the fight against narco-trafficking, fiscal evasion, contraband and other types of crimes of international character,” added President Abel Pacheco.

Approximately 25,000 trucks passed through Peñas Blancas last year, Ramos said.

The Pubic Security Ministry has established a solid link between trucks traveling between Guatemala and Panama and drug trafficking operations, according to Paul Chaves, advisor to the Ministry and Drug Control Police (TT, April 2).

Agents from the Drug Control Police, the Canine Unit and the Customs Police will use drug-sniffing dogs as well as technology such as fiber optics to search trucks for drugs hidden in everything from air vents to gas tanks.

The search process can take up to four hours, officials said. With the new facilities, which allow three trucks to be checked at once, officers can check 10 trucks a day, eight more than they could previously. They will also have the capacity to work nearly 24 hours a day, according to the Ministry.

Since January, agents have seized 762 kilograms of cocaine during seven different busts in Peñas Blancas. They also confiscated 28 firearms.

A $47,500 donation from the United States also allowed for the purchase of equipment and furniture for the building, which includes offices and dorms for personnel.

U.S. officials are working with Costa Rican agents in training programs, both at Peñas Blancas and the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, U.S. Ambassador John J. Danilovich said.

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40 Undocumented Foreigners
Detained in Past 10 Days

Immigration officials have detained 40 undocumented South Americans in the past 10 days who had entered the country illegally by air and sea, allegedly on their way to the United States, according to Public Security Ministry officials.

Marco Badilla, general director of Immigration, told reporters that South American immigrants have been entering the country from Panama by boat and aerial taxis, which make it possible for them to avoid immigration control checkpoints.

Badilla said he did not know how much the foreigners had paid coyotes (people traffickers) to be transported across Costa Rica, but admitted it most likely was very large sums of money.

The Immigration director said he suspects the trafficking was conducted by a gang of coyotes that operates throughout Central America. He said police are in the process of retracing the immigrants’ steps to obtain the clues needed to dismantle the gang.

The undocumented foreigners detained include several Peruvians and Ecuadorians in addition to a Colombian. The foreigners are in temporary custody and are expected to be deported in the coming days.

--AFP

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Costa Rican Exports
Continue to Grow

Costa Rican exports grew 4.2% during the first trimester of this year, according to the Central Bank.

Total export revenues grew to $1.59 billion during the first trimester, compared to $1.53 billion a year before, the Central Bank reported.

During the same period, exports grew 1.2%, from $1.94 billion to $1.96 billion. The country’s trade balance deficit dropped from $411.5 million to $371 million.

The most dynamic exports during the first trimester of 2004 were pineapple, melon, mangoes, manufactured goods assembled in free-trade zones, microprocessors, fruit concentrate and ornamental foliage.

--AFP

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Wednesday October 26, 2005