Summary: An attorney in Costa Rica, who has a colorful past, has been arrested after he smuggled cocaine into a prison.
A Costa Rican criminal defense attorney has been arrested and charged under suspicion of smuggling cocaine into a prison in San Jose. According to the Costa Rica Star, the attorney was attempting to smuggle cocaine into the San Sebastian prison, but was apprehended by corrections officers. He has been identified only by his last name, Ruiz.
In 2012, a woman was arrested in Spain for smuggling cocaine in her breast implants.
The incident occurred during an attorney/client visit at the prison. The Chief of Corrections Police said that the attorney was under surveillance since he had previously been suspected of smuggling two mobiles phones into the prison. On this visit, Ruiz had 142 grams of cocaine hydrochloride in powder form in his rectum.
The cocaine was pressed into a pack in a double latex lining. The officers who arrested Ruiz were aware of his background, and became suspicious when he was walking in a strange manner. They put on rubber gloves and prepared to do a cavity search on Ruiz, however, by the time the officers entered the attorney/client room, Ruiz had already excreted the package.
In 2013, 1.3 tons of cocaine was seized on an Air France flight.
The cocaine that was confiscated may have been converted into a few hundred hits of crack. These are sold for about five thousand colones (roughly $10) in most Costa Rican prisons. A marijuana cigarette sells for around $6. Most inmates at San Sebastian are imprisoned for drug-related crimes. Recently, Costa Rica’s Supreme Court ordered that the prison must deal with its “cruel and degrading” conditions, the Tico Times added.
This is not Ruiz’s first time in trouble. He previously worked as a field agent in the Office of Judicial Investigations, and while working in law enforcement, a complaint was issued at him by another agent, who claimed that Ruiz shot at him after an argument in Guanacaste.
Some employees of the Department of Homeland Security have been busted for smuggling drugs.
Ruiz is also a former inmate himself. He studied law while serving time for his part in a car theft ring that was headed by an infamous criminal in San Jose. He is the director of legal offices at the University of Costa Rica, and in 2010, Ruiz found out that undercover Office of Judicial Investigations officers infiltrated a student protest. Ruiz started a melee and joined the students in physically fighting the agents. Ruiz suffered a broken tooth in the process, but declined medical attention. In fact, he taunted the injured agents as they were taken to the hospital.
Source: Costa Rica Star
Photo credit: tbo.com