Costa Rica Hands Four Suspects to US in Three Days as US Embassy Praises New Prison

Costa Rica extradited three Mexican men to the United States on Friday to face drug charges that authorities have linked to the Sinaloa Cartel. The handover came two days after the country turned over a Russian national wanted by US prosecutors. The same day, the US Embassy in San José congratulated President Laura Fernández on opening the new high-containment prison for organized crime. The embassy called Costa Rica a key partner in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime. The three Mexicans, Espinoza Hernández, Campos Barragán and Vidrio López, are wanted by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. They face charges of conspiracy to possess cocaine and bring it into the United States. They were detained in April of last year in Quepos. The National Coast Guard Service and the Drug Control Police intercepted a US-flagged yacht carrying about 840 kilograms (1,852 pounds) of suspected cocaine hidden in internal compartments, according to authorities, who identified Campos as the vessel’s captain. The United States formally requested the men’s extradition later that April. Costa Rica finally authorized it in February and an appeals court in San José upheld the decision in June after defense lawyers challenged it, according to judicial authorities. The three left La Reforma prison in San Rafael de Alajuela on Friday under heavy security and were taken to Juan Santamaría International Airport. Omer Badilla Toledo, vice minister of Government and Police, said there that the men would be handed over to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The Office of the Deputy Prosecutor against Organized Crime had sought to speed up the handover so it could request a suspension of the Costa Rican case against the three, according to judicial authorities. A suspension is not an acquittal, and none of the men has been convicted in either country. Last Wednesday, agents from the Interpol office of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) handed a 63-year-old Russian man to US authorities. He was arrested at Juan Santamaría last December, after arriving on a flight from Mexico. He is wanted in the United States in connection with an alleged conspiracy to export goods illegally between 2019 and 2021. The US embassy statement on Friday focused on the Center for High Containment of Organized Crime (CACCO), which the government opened Wednesday near La Reforma. The embassy noted the facility was built in about nine months and said it is essential to stop convicted criminals from continuing to direct criminal activity from prison. The prison can hold up to 5,100 inmates. Authorities expect the first transfers in late October, starting with gang leaders and members of transnational criminal groups, though the facility faces a court challenge before those transfers begin. The statement follows Fernández’s remarks this week that the US government already operates on Costa Rican soil. She also toured El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, and the two countries then signed an agreement to fight organized crime. The cases against all four men will now proceed in the United States, where they are presumed innocent until proven guilty.