Suspect arrested four times for alleged drug trafficking

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Drug Control Police of the Ministry of Public Security detained Wednesday a 54-year-old Guatemalan surnamed Barrios- Ramírez, on suspicion of international drug trafficking.

According to the police report, this is the fourth time that the same suspect is arrested for the same alleged crime.

"The suspect of alleged international drug trafficker has a history of the previous arrest for the same crime in 1998, 1999 and 2013," said police in the report.

The suspect's latest arrest was near the checkpoint in Peñas Blancas, in the province of Guanacaste, near the border with Nicaragua. The man was driving a truck to Nicaragua, police said.

In a routine check, the officers said they noticed that the truck had two metal cylinders that did not correspond to the original structure.

Officers said they found nine packages of apparent cocaine in one cylinder and 10 packages in the other cylinder. "Each of these 19 packages contained approximately one kilogram of cocaine," said the police in its report.

According to the police, the trailer's route was through Nicaragua to El Salvador.

The man was taken to the cells of the Public Ministry where he was interrogated by the judicial agents and after that, detained to await a judge's order on the pre-trial measures.

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Should the Prosecutor open an investigation into the procedures in the previous arrests of this suspect? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com