The Costa Rican police authorities detained five members of a criminal organization that sent cocaine smuggled in pineapple shipments to Europe.
The five men with the surnames Pino, Lara, Valerio, Gamboa, and Huertas will have to spend six months in preventive detention for being suspected of being part of a drug band that sent cocaine to Europe in pineapple shipments.
The precautionary measure against the subjects was handed down by the Criminal Court of Greece.
The criminals were arrested last week on Wednesday in five raids conducted by the Drug Control Police (PCD).
Michael Soto, the Minister of Security, said that the drug gang is related to two shipments of cocaine, one to Germany and one to the Netherlands.
He also said that the authorities had started investigating the men on March 22, 2017 when the Drug Control Police (PCD) received information from the FBI (United States) detailing the presence of a gang in Costa Rica led by an Israeli, Orgad Ttzhak.
Soto said that the leader of the band had vanished three months ago.
"The investigation started with him. He was one of our main objectives and he mysteriously disappeared. According to his neighbors, he left in a vehicle and never came back, leaving his house untouched."
“We have many hypotheses, including that he left the country or that something happened to him," the minister said.
Source: La Teja CR