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SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rican authorities say they have seized about 1,600 pounds (724 kilograms) of cocaine in two recent busts.
The Public Security Ministry said Monday that the first bust yielded 690 pounds (313 kilograms).
It was detected Saturday with the help of a sniffer dog inside a tractor-trailer loaded with beans that was preparing to cross the northern border into Nicaragua. The truck had Nicaraguan plates. Authorities detained the driver, who was identified as a Nicaraguan citizen.
The second seizure of some 910 pounds (411 kilograms) hidden in coolers on a fishing boat came off Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast. Authorities credited the bust to a joint patrolling agreement between Costa Rica and the U.S. Three people were arrested.
Mexican traffickers have increasingly been using Costa Rica to smuggle U.S.-bound drugs.
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