The man with the hood on his head starts talking: "We do shipments to Costa Rica, in containers, to the port of Limòn. There we have a contact within a cement company - a company of cement trucks that carry cement to Costa Rica. Normally we send a maximum of 100 kilos per truck…This company has around 200 trucks working".
The man who's speaking is called Juan. His name is not real, just to protect his anonymity for he's an ex drug trafficker. In the Caracol Television show called "Direct Witness", reproduced online by Crhoy.com Juan explaine how the criminal organization he used to work with was able to ship 20 tons of cocaine each time using trucks loaded with cement. They use to send cocaine from south american port to Costa Rica, Panama, Puerto Valencia, Puerto Moin.
What's new in this cocaine business is, as Juan explains, the involvement of business owner with established companies that are used to launder the money generated by the trade.
"In Costa Rica everything works like in Colombia, criminal gangs that collect taxes.We are doing a lot of work (...) All those who work in this have their legally constituted companies.They are big businessmen (... ) and legalize the money with their companies ", assured" Juan ", who insisted that" we have a great team working, from Cartagena to Costa Rica ".
According to cement.com there are actually three cement plants in Costa Rica.
Cemex Costa Rica a branch of Cemex Latin America Holdings, which actually own two integrated cements plants in Costa Rica one in Colorado de Abangares and the other one in San Josè de Costa Rica.
The third plant, which is owned by Holcim S.A. a local branch of Laforge Holcim Ltd, is located in Agua Caliente de Cartago.
The organization he was working for, normally corrupt Costa Rica officials to avoid controls inside containers hiding cocaine.
Importing cement
This means that probably the cement company involved in the cocaine traffic could be an importer, not necessarily a producer.
According to El Financierocr.com the import of cement in Costa Rica has skyrocketed between 2014 and 2016 due to a large increase in buying Chinese products.
While in 2014 this import was only 10.418 tons, in 2016 it has incredibly grown to 107.297 tons.
The reason is connected with the new regulations on hydraulic cements approved by Costa Rican Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC).
Adding to this, the new Chinese productor Sinocem has doubled its import revenue changing Costa Rican landscape originally ruled by only two competitors: Cemex and Holcim. Sinocem started importing product at the beginning of 2015, and in 2016 this import share was two third of total imports in Costa Rica.
From the site global cement.com on November 13th of 2017 we know that Republic of China officially confirmed that Sinocem China has ended al commercial relations with Sinocem Costa Rica. The statement was made due to an investigation into alleged irregularities and lobbying involving the owner of Sinocem Costa Rica, Juan Carlos Bolanos, and certain officials of state-owned bank Banco de Costa Rica, according to La Nacion.
Officially the broke up reason is due to purchasing cement from other Chinese suppliers and packaging it with Sinocem package without permission.
Sinocem is a recognized brand in the import of cement, according to the website of the company.
"It offers high quality products at competitive prices, friendly to the environment and complying with national and international norms and standards and as established by current legislation".
The company is totally owned by Costa Rican capital, and has all the national and international certifications that guarantee high cement quality and commitment to the environment.
With more than 50 points of sale nationwide Sinocem offers the opportunity to consumers to acquire an excellent product. (cm)