By Andrew Rice
The Center Square

The Trump administration announced sanctions against four Costa Rican drug traffickers and two business entities as part of an effort to crackdown on cocaine.

“Costa Rica has become an increasingly significant waypoint for criminal groups trafficking cocaine into the United States,” U.S. Treasury officials said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration found that cocaine contributed to more than 22,000 overdose deaths in the United States over a 12-month period.

“Drug cartels are poisoning Americans and making our communities more dangerous by trafficking cocaine, often laced with fentanyl, into the United States,” said John Hurley, undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department.

In May, Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chaves Robles allowed two of the drug traffickers the U.S. is targeting to be extradited to the United States. Costa Rican police arrested Celso Manuel Gamboa Sanchez and Edwin Danney Lopez Vega in June in response to the United States’ extradition request.

Gamboa and Lopez are in prison awaiting extradition to the United States. Alejandro Antonio James Wilson and Alejandro Arias Monge are also under sanction orders by the Treasury Department.

The Treasury Department said the men were involved in facilitating the shipment of tens of millions of dollars worth of cocaine from Columbia through Costa Rica to the United States and Europe.

A Treasury Department investigation found Gamboa laundered drug trafficking money through two businesses – Bufete Celso Gamboa and Asociados and Limón Black Star FC – which are also being sanctioned.

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order authorizing the secretary of the treasury to impose sanctions against foreign individuals. The authorization allows the Treasury Department to prohibit an individual’s financial activity within the jurisdiction of the U.S. and block possession of an individual’s property, if the property is in the United States.

The Trump administration’s Treasury Department cited Biden’s executive order for its authority to impose sanctions. The sanctions against four Costa Rican drug traffickers are designed to prevent institutions from participating in financial activity with the sanctioned individuals in order to deter more illicit drug trafficking.

“The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated or blocked person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person,” the press release reads.

The sanctions against Costa Rican drug traffickers follows an increased crackdown on drug trafficking after the announcement of sanctions against two Mexican cartels last week.

“The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior,” officials noted in a news release.