Police seize 250,000-plus fireworks devices with powder

-Published: Friday, December 27, 2019-

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Border Police have confiscated 257,881 units of pyrotechnic material, known as consumer fireworks, presumed contraband.

According to Allan Obando, director of the Border Police, there will be no truce this year in the fight against the illegal transfer of goods that endanger the security of Costa Ricans, with the sale of smuggling gunpowder fireworks.

According to the police report, the largest seizure was recorded Sunday at the Guaycará post, in the canton of Golfito, in the southern zone, when police checked a car that came from Paso Canoas on the border with Panamá.

The vehicle was driven by a Costa Rican surnamed Fernández. The vehicle carried 180,000 pyrotechnics fireworks units with powder, onboard as well as 60,000 sparklers for children. Police said.

A sparkler is a type of hand-held firework that burns slowly while emitting colored flames, sparks, and other effects.

Among the most common types of pyrotechnics fireworks are:

- Skyrocket is to launch into the air, sometimes with a high-pitched whistling sound, with sparks at the top of the trajectory

- Firecracker that result in an explosion occurs on the ground, often in a series.

- Smokeball that emit colored smoke for a few seconds. Colors typically include white, green, blue, yellow, orange, fuchsia, red and pink.

- Snake, a firework that, when lit, leaves a trail of ash.

- Party poppers, once a string is pulled to activate the charge, confetti is thrust into the air and produces sparks.

- Snaps, a small paper bag typically filled with gravel and a few micrograms of silver fulminate to produce sparks when thrown at a hard surface or stepped on.

In another forfeiture, during the weekend, the police of the Sixaola station, on the coast of the southern Caribbean, seized 17,881 pyrotechnic fireworks units with powder.

In Talamanca, the police confiscated another driver who had 7,620 fireworks pyrotechnics units hidden in his vehicle, allegedly being smuggled into the country from Panamá.

Sunday two more cargoes were discovered, the first was aboard of a vehicle driven by a man surnamed Salguera, who carried 7,659 units of various types of gunpowder fireworks, said police.

In a second vehicle, driven by a man surnamed Rojas, the police said they seized 2,602 units of powder fireworks.

According to the police report, both vehicles came from Sixaola, so it is presumed they came originally from Panamá.

According to the Weapons and Explosives Law, those who acquire, trade, transport, store and sell explosive items without the respective permission are punished with penalties of three to seven years in prison. Likewise, people who illegally manufacture or introduce these items to the country will also be punished with sentences of up to six years in jail.

The police called on the population to report any suspicion of fireworks in their communities to 911, where there are bilinguals staff who can answer calls in English or Spanish.

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