The U.S. imposed sanctions on five Costa Ricans and five Costa Rican entities for allegedly helping transport tons of cocaine from Colombia, storing the drugs in Costa Rica, and shipping them to the United States and Europe, according to the Treasury Department.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control alleged that Luis Manuel Picado Grijalba, who was sanctioned Thursday, led the network and was among the most prolific international drug dealers in the Caribbean, the Associated Press reported. The Treasury also alleged that Picado Grijalba’s brother, Jordie Kevin Picado Grijalba, was part of the same network.
In announcing the sanctions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “the entire drug trafficking supply chain — from shipping facilitators to money launderers — bears responsibility for American addictions and deaths,” the AP reported.
The latest sanctions also targeted Picado Grijalba’s wife and mother-in-law, according to the AP report. They further included family-operated companies linked to alleged drug trafficking and money laundering, with one target described as a beauty salon.
The AP said the U.S. government used a task force involving Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security field offices, along with Costa Rica’s Office of the Attorney General and others, to identify the people and companies placed on the sanctions list.
Under the sanctions announced Thursday, the AP reported, the listed people and firms are denied access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S. The sanctions also prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with the designated parties.
The AP said the sanctions were part of a broader Trump administration push against drug trafficking in the Caribbean. It reported that the U.S. military has conducted a series of strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing more than 100 people since early September. The AP also said that in December, the CIA carried out a drone strike at a docking area in Venezuela believed to have been used by drug cartels.
The AP reported that the Trump administration also struck a deal with Costa Rica in early last year, during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, under which Costa Rica agreed to hold U.S. deportees in detention facilities while the return process to their countries was organized.