Costa Rica's National Parks Marred by Drug Dealers

The lush national parks of Costa Rica have long attracted tourists from around the globe with their evergreen rainforests, white beaches and thermal springs. Recently, they have lured more unsavory visitors in the form of drug traffickers.

Organized crime cartels have turned to Costa Rica's treasured nature reserves as governments wage military offensives against the gangs throughout Mexico and Central America.

In the mangrove swamps and jungles, the traffickers have found a vast, sparsely populated and thinly policed paradise that they can use as a stop-off point on their way to smuggle Colombian cocaine to the United States. They also increasingly grow marijuana amid the cedar and lemonwood trees.

Costa Rica prides itself on not having a standing army but the incursion has put lightly armed park rangers into the frontline of the drug war as they struggle to prevent hikers and swimmers bumping into any rude surprises.

In January, the Coast Guard was called in for an unprecedented seizure of almost 1 ton of cocaine found in swampy mud in the Palo Seco Park. The drugs would have been worth about $100 million on the U.S. streets.

In total, Costa Rican authorities seized more than 6.6 tons of cocaine in the first half of this year both in and out of parks, compared to less than 3 tons in the same period last year. In all of last year, 8.9 tons of cocaine was seized.

Park rangers have also uncovered dozens of gangster encampments, complete with food supplies.

Drug cartel expansion into Costa Rican parks is seen as part of a 'balloon' effect of the narcotics trade, which has been attacked by military offensives in Mexico, Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala.

Police say the smuggling is carried out mainly by Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel, La Familia and the Gulf Cartel. Last month, Costa Rican police arrested the alleged head of the Gulf Cartel's operations in all Central America, Juan Manuel Garcia, in San Jose.

Costa Rica abolished its army in 1948, a move that is celebrated annually, so the Central American nation is unable to pursue a Mexican or Colombian-style military crackdown. However, the Costa Rican government has strengthened cooperation with the United States Navy in hitting traffickers in the South Pacific.

It also recently levied a special tax on businesses to raise $70 million for anti-drug efforts, including special police units. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Michael Rothermund said local DEA agents worked closely with Costa Rica's judicial and drug control police.