US sanctions Costa Rican drug network, including an aesthetic salon, for trafficking cocaine

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. imposed sanctions on five Costa Ricans and five Costa Rican entities for allegedly helping to transport tons of cocaine from Colombia, storing the drugs in Costa Rica, then shipping them to the U.S. and Europe.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control alleges that Costa Rican national Luis Manuel Picado Grijalba, sanctioned Thursday, is the leader of the network and one of the most prolific international drug dealers in the Caribbean, along with his brother Jordie Kevin Picado Grijalba.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “the entire drug trafficking supply chain — from shipping facilitators to money launderers — bears responsibility for American addictions and deaths,” in announcing the sanctions.

The latest sanctions also target Grijalba’s wife and mother-in-law, and family-operated companies, including an aesthetic salon, linked to alleged drug trafficking and money laundering.

A taskforce between Homeland Security and Drug Enforcement Administration field offices as well as Costa Rica’s Office of the Attorney General, and others worked to track down the sanctioned people and firms.

Among other things, the sanctions deny the people and firms access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S. and prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with them.

Thursday’s sanctions are part of a larger Trump administration pursuit of the drug trade in the Caribbean.

The U.S. military has conducted a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. More than 100 people have been killed in attacks since early September and in the first-known direct operation on Venezuelan soil, the CIA carried out a drone strike in December at a docking area believed to have been used by drug cartels.

Additionally, the Trump administration struck a deal with Costa Rica early last year during U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit, where Costa Rica agreed to hold U.S. deportees in detention facilities for the Trump administration while it organized the return back to their countries.