US embassy cable - 05SANJOSE2726

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SAN JOSE 002726 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INL/PC MCKENCHNIE, INL/LP FOR SUTOW 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR, KJUS, KCRM, CS 
SUBJECT: COSTA RICA MINI-DUBLIN GROUP REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 200169 
 
1. Summary, Post convened a mini-Dublin Group meeting on 
November 18, 2005 with representatives from the Embassies of 
Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.  The 
Spanish, French, and Canadian Embassies were unable to 
participate in the meeting but provided information related 
to their very limited programs in Costa Rica.  The report 
below provides a summary of the meeting and information 
requested in reftel. 
 
General Situation 
----------------- 
 
2. Costa Rica continues to serve as a major transit point for 
illegal narcotics destined to the United States and Europe 
from production sites in South America.  Costa Rica's 
geographic position astride important sea routes, it's large 
maritime area (10 times larger than its land mass), and it's 
distance from Colombia combine to make the country an ideal 
logistics platform for drug trafficking organizations moving 
narcotics to the U.S.  The Pan-American highway serves as a 
major thoroughfare for large land shipments while a lack of 
resources at Costa Rica's three international airports 
provide opportunities for smuggling heroin to both the U.S. 
and Europe.  Costa Rica continues to implement its 
comprehensive national drug plan, drafted in 2003.  Costa 
Rica has money laundering legislation in place and strict 
controls on precursor chemicals, although implementation is 
uneven.  The GOCR continues to demonstrate professionalism 
and reliability as USG partners in combating narcotics 
trafficking.  Costa Rican authorities have aggressively 
investigated allegations of internal corruption and 
successfully prosecuted numerous officials including more 
than 20 police officers, a prosecutor, and a judge. 
 
--Legal Framework:  Costa Rica is compliant with all UN drug 
conventions.  Costa Rica has not executed any new agreements 
to date in 2005, but is about to engage in an exchange of 
diplomatic notes accepting U.S. terms on the use of the 
Cooperating Nation Information Exchange System (CNIES). 
 
--Trafficking Issues:  Costa Rican authorities have seized a 
record 6,749 kilograms of cocaine to date in 2005.  The drug 
control police (PCD) increased seizures of crack (17,393 
"rocks" compared to 13,339 in 2004) and doubled the 
destruction of marijuana plants to over one million.  The PCD 
seized 881 kilos of marijuana and 49.38 kilos of heroin.  At 
a conservative $18,000 per kilo, the street value of the 
seized cocaine alone exceeds $121.4 million. 
 
--Demand Issues: Seizures of MDMA/Ecstasy are down 
dramatically from 1,633 tablet in 2004 to 41 tablets to date 
in 2005.  Post provided $10,000 in INL funds for a demand 
reduction campaign in 2004 targeting Ecstasy.  In 2005, we 
are spending an additional $10,000 for a broader demand 
reduction campaign targeting middle school-age children 
across the country. 
 
--Domestic Production:  Low-quality marihuana is produced for 
internal consumption in Costa Rica.  In previous years, 
high-quality hydroponic marijuana production has been 
interdicted.  Reporting indicates that this activity 
continues and is likely growing in Costa Rica, but we had no 
seizures of hydroponic marijuana in 2005.  As mentioned 
earlier, Costa Rican police eradicated over 1,071,000 
marijuana plants in 2005. 
 
--Donor activities: The USG's bilateral counter-narcotics 
assistance program is the only one of substance among the 
Dublin Group Donors in Costa Rica.  Germany maintains 
criminal investigators in Mexico and Colombia who visit Costa 
Rica on a quarterly basis.  The German representative 
informed the group that due to resource restrictions, her 
government will no longer conduct bilateral training in 
Central American.  Germany will continue to occasionaly 
sponsor regional conferences.  The Netherlands exchanges 
information (primarily related to the detection of Ecstasy) 
with GOCR officials via an Attache in Colombia.  A Dutch 
Frigate is currently calling on the port of Limon in Costa 
Rica.  This is the first such visit according to the Dutch 
representative.  At last year's mini-Dublin, Dutch 
representatives told us they expected to ratify the 
multilateral "Agreement Concerning Cooperation in Suppressing 
Illicit Maritime and Aeronautical Trafficking in Narcotics 
Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in the Caribbean Area" by 
April of 2005.  At this year's meeting, these officials could 
not speculate when their government might ratify.  The 
British government expects to ratify the agreement within a 
few weeks.  The British government also exchanges information 
with GOCR officials via an Attache in Panama.  Spain provides 
generalized bilateral support to the police, but this support 
is not focused on narcotics.  The French Embassy informed us 
outside the Dublin process that France also runs a small 
bilateral assistance program for Costa Rican police, but like 
Spain's, the program does not focus on narcotics in any way. 
Canada provides generalized counter-narcotics assistance to 
all of Central America through the OAS and CICAD. 
 
International Law Enforcement Cooperation:  All of the 
participants agreed on the need for enhanced coordination in 
the area of money laundering.  The Dutch representative 
stated that his government's limited resources on this front 
are focused on Panama.  We agreed to keep each other informed 
about visiting experts, and to meet more frequently to 
enhance our coordination. 
LANGDALE