Jesús Daniel Romero from Miami Strategic Intelligence for FinGurú
I. The end of the illusion of peace
For decades, Costa Rica was the exception in a region plagued by conflicts. A country without an army, a stable democracy, a refuge of peace that attracted tourists and thousands of retired and expatriate Americans seeking safety and well-being. That image no longer exists.
Today, Costa Rica faces a new and grim reality. Homicides have reached record numbers. Heavily armed cartels roam freely through ports and highways. Law enforcement agencies are overwhelmed. The institutions that once made Costa Rica a model are now under attack.
But this is not only an internal problem. What is happening in Costa Rica is a direct consequence of a more dangerous and silent invasion: the relentless expansion of Colombian cocaine.
II. The Colombian origin of the collapse
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), global cocaine production exceeded 3,700 metric tons in 2023, the highest level ever recorded (UNODC, 2025). Colombia remains the core of this explosion. Coca cultivation has expanded under the protection of criminal organizations that operate with increasing impunity.
Instead of dismantling these networks, recent Colombian governments have opted to negotiate with them, tolerate them, or simply lose control. Faced with rising global demand and weak law enforcement, drug traffickers have expanded their routes, bringing drugs, hitmen, and corruption to neighboring countries.
Costa Rica, with its strategic location, well-established logistical routes, and no armed forces, was the next natural target.
III. The strategic collapse of Costa Rica
The transformation has been rapid and profound.
Port cities like Limón and Moín, once associated with tourism and trade, have become key departure points for cocaine shipments. Local police admit to being constantly outgunned. Prosecutors and judges have received credible death threats. Some have abandoned their cases (El País, 2024). Hired homicides have skyrocketed. In 2024, Costa Rica recorded nearly 880 homicides—just slightly below the 907 in 2023—with a rate of approximately 16.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. About 70% of murders are related to drug trafficking (The Tico Times, 2025).
New criminal alliances have emerged among Colombian, Mexican, Balkan, and Costa Rican actors. Control of territory is no longer exercised by the state, but by those who dominate the drug corridors (Insight Crime, 2024).
Even Costa Rican elites have been infiltrated. In Final Flight: Queen of Air, Jesús Romero and Steve Tochterman recount how Captain Rodrigo Chaves Montenegro, a former pilot of the Costa Rican Air Service, allegedly used his air access to facilitate cocaine shipments to the United States. His wife, María Fernanda Corrales Jiménez, then a consular officer in Houston, was said to have collaborated in money laundering and logistics operations (Romero & Tochterman, 2024).
Both, in strategic positions, facilitated the transport of drugs, money, and personnel without being detected. Although U.S. authorities dismantled the operation, the institutional damage was already done. This case revealed the extent to which organized crime networks have penetrated state structures and exploited diplomatic and air channels.
A statement from the U.S. Department of the Treasury in November 2023 identified Gilbert Hernán de los Ángeles Bell Fernández, alias “Macho Coca,” as one of Costa Rica's top drug traffickers, linked to a 66% increase in homicides in Limón over the last decade. Bell coordinated maritime shipments using front companies sanctioned by the OFAC and worked in conjunction with DEA operations in the country (Department of the Treasury, 2023). This case shows how drug trafficking has become not only a transnational threat but also a driver of violence and local corruption.
IV. Why should the U.S. be concerned?
This is not a distant problem. The United States has a lot at stake.
It is estimated that between 70,000 and 100,000 Americans live in Costa Rica, either as permanent residents or temporary migrants. Many are retirees who have invested in real estate, depend on the local healthcare system, and live in regions now suffering from an alarming increase in violence.
Costa Rica has for decades been a reliable partner of Washington in drug interdiction, environmental conservation, and immigration control.
And the cocaine flowing through Costa Rica is not for local consumption. Its destination is the United States. Transit countries like Costa Rica and Ecuador are victims of criminal interests that only see them as shipping platforms. The violence, corruption, and institutional decay they face are the collateral damage of a market whose origin and final destination is the U.S. consumer.
In congressional hearings in the U.S., both the Coast Guard and Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) identified Costa Rica as a key point in the Eastern Pacific cocaine corridor. Rear Admiral Adam A. Chamie testified before the Senate Commerce Committee in 2024 that the maritime routes crossing Costa Rica are among the most used to transport drugs to the United States. Likewise, Admiral Craig Faller, then head of SOUTHCOM, stated that up to 65% of the cocaine destined for the U.S. transits this area, where JIATF-South can only intercept a fraction of known shipments (Chamie, 2024; Faller, 2019; SOUTHCOM, 2024).
V. A warning for the entire hemisphere
What Costa Rica is experiencing is reminiscent of Ecuador's collapse just two years ago: a peaceful country infiltrated, corrupted, and militarized in a matter of months. In both cases, the cause was the same: Colombian cocaine and the networks that traffic it.
Costa Rica, like Ecuador, is learning the lesson the hard way. No democracy on the continent is safe from the chaos driven by cocaine.
The country is not the epicenter of the crisis. It is the thermometer of a regional fire, fueled by record drug production (UNODC, 2025).
VI. Threats by sea and air
Costa Rica's location in the Pacific Corridor has made it an increasingly frequent point for the use of sophisticated vessels, such as semi-submersibles and low-profile boats.
In August 2024, authorities intercepted a semi-submersible off the southern Pacific coast with two metric tons of cocaine (The Tico Times, 2024a). That single operation represented nearly a third of all seizures for the year.
Air dominance is also under threat. Intelligence reports indicate that small aircraft from Mexico land at clandestine airstrips to pick up cocaine previously stored. These flights evade radar and return undetected.
VII. Collapse from the top
Just as Mexico had García Luna, Costa Rica faces its own institutional scandal. Celso Gamboa, former attorney general and ex-magistrate, was linked to international drug trafficking. The United States formally requested his extradition in 2024 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2024).
The Costa Rican Institute on Drugs reported that cocaine seizures fell from 47,127 kg in 2020 to only 6,149 kg in 2024. This is a clear sign of institutional weakening (ICD, 2024; La República, 2024).
VIII. What must be done
Costa Rica cannot face this threat alone. The situation demands an urgent and coordinated international response. The United States must enhance cooperation in intelligence, maritime surveillance, and joint operations. It is essential to invest in anti-corruption programs, judicial protection, and financial seizure actions through OFAC and the DEA. JIATF-South must increase its presence, and Costa Rica must fully integrate into these missions.
Regionally, the OAS and SICA must prioritize the Costa Rican situation as a challenge to democratic stability. If Costa Rica collapses, the impact will be devastating for all of Central America.
IX. The last democratic wall
Costa Rica has been a moral bulwark in Central America for decades. It stood firm during the civil wars of the 80s, coups, and the deterioration of the rule of law in the region. Losing Costa Rica would not just be a symbolic defeat. It would be the victory of a criminal insurgency fueled by cocaine over the last functioning democracy of the Isthmus.
Strengthening Costa Rica is not an act of charity. It is a strategic necessity for those who still believe in democratic order in the Western Hemisphere.
X. Conclusion
The fall of Costa Rica into narco chaos is not an isolated episode. It is a hemisphere-wide alarm bell. Colombian cocaine is no longer just an illegal commodity. It is a geopolitical force capable of dismantling democracies from within.
The illusion of Costa Rican immunity has been shattered. The real question is whether the United States and its allies will react in time… before the entire region shares the same fate.
References
Chamie, A. A. (2024, February 15). Testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation – Hearing on the role of the Coast Guard in maritime drug interdiction.
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/80927E2C-F2C0-4256-A357-04B804003600
DEA, Office of North and Central America. (n.d.). Central America used as a storage and transit point for cocaine to the U.S.
https://www.dea.gov/foreign-offices/north-and-central-america
El País. (2024, October 23). Death threats and drug trafficking suspicions: political tension rises in Costa Rica.
Faller, C. S. (2019, June 4). Statement before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.
https://www.congress.gov/event/116th-congress/house-event/LC64707/text
Insight Crime. (2024). Cocaine and marijuana fuel ever-higher homicides in Costa Rica.
https://insightcrime.org/news/cocaine-and-marijuana-fuel-ever-higher-homicides-in-costa-rica/
Costa Rican Institute on Drugs. (2024). Statistics on cocaine seizures 2014–2024.
https://www.icd.go.cr/portalicd/index.php/publicaciones/main-boletines-estadisticos
La República. (2024, June 17). Is Costa Rica a narco paradise?
https://www.larepublica.net/noticia/es-costa-rica-un-paraiso-narco
The Tico Times. (2024, August 13). Costa Rica intercepts a semi-submersible with two tons of cocaine.
https://ticotimes.net/2024/08/13/costa-rica-intercepts-semi-submersible-vessel-carrying-cocaine
The Tico Times. (2025, May 29). Costa Rica approves extradition of nationals for drug trafficking and terrorism.
U.S. Department of State. (2025). Report on the International Narcotics Control Strategy 2025, Vol. 1.
U.S. Department of the Treasury. (2023, November 15). Treasury and the Government of Costa Rica cooperate on sanctions against notorious drug trafficker.
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1911
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2025). World Drug Report 2025.
U.S. Southern Command. (2024). SOUTHCOM Posture Statement 2024.
https://www.southcom.mil/Portals/7/Documents/Posture%20Statements/2024%20SOUTHCOM%20P
Jesús Daniel Romero is a Retired U.S. Naval Intelligence Commander and has also carried out prominent diplomatic missions representing his country.
He is Co-Founder and Senior Fellow at the Miami Strategic Intelligence Institute, and the author of the Amazon best seller "Final Flight: The Queen of Air."
He is a columnist for the Diario Las Américas in Miami and a regular consultant for Florida's media on topics related to his specialty.
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