On Wednesday, the Minister of Security Michael Soto defended the purchase of a King Air 250 aircraft valued at $7 million. The acquisition was made during the previous government with funds from the Corporation Tax, established in the 2017 budget.
It will have cutting-edge technology for the fight against drug trafficking. I think it’s going to be very useful because it’s going to be a plane with radars,”
said Soto.
The official said the plane will not carry passengers and will serve as radar to patrol the oceans against drug trafficking and illegal fishing.
It’s not for leisure. Our seas are used for drug trafficking. A lot of drugs enter by sea into Costa Rican territory to be stored and then leave by land, air or sea. The Government must have the tools to do its job,”
argued the hierarch.
The aircraft will be available by May 2019 and is currently being equipped by the Government of the United States. The amount of the technological investment is around $5 million and that was donated by the Americans.
Soto insisted that the data support the need for an aircraft to monitor the coasts. For example, he cited that in the last two weeks 5,000 kilograms of cocaine were seized in the Pacific.
I regret to disclose this strategy information against drug trafficking. To travel 80 miles to stop a boat is not easy to do it in a patrol boat, it takes hours, so the idea is that the radars give us the locations and an effective follow-up is executed.”
Soto said that the country also only has three patrol boats, so with the King Air, more effective operations are expected.