Major Coke Bust Sparks Shootout On The Sand At Pavones

It’s boat week, apparently. Yesterday, a rogue sports/fishing vessel decided to play dodgeball with surfers in the Lowers lineup, coming within inches of a few. The driver and his two stoic crewmen stood at attention, an air of supreme indifference as they throttled past surfers, before turning back to sea like nothing had happened.

And in Costa Rica, not 24 hours later, a boat speeds ashore, gunfire cracks the silence as $12.5 million worth of cocaine bricks were seized from the sand at Pavones. A thrilling time to be a surfer, a boat owner, or both. 

For now, let’s focus on drugs.

“The boat filled with coke was a super high-end fishing boat,” says a local source. “It was just packed to the brim with coke, boxes and bricks of it tied together. It was going fast as fuck, but it was being chased by another boat, which was actually an American vessel. It was the cops.” 

A high-speed chase through the Pavones lineup, wrapping up with a shootout on the beach.

“In order to try to escape, they hit the beach. They probably thought that the cops weren’t going to follow them. But they decided to beach right behind them. They almost hit rocks, but made it through the middle of this little key hole, right at the end of the wave. Then the gunfire started.

“One of the Narco dudes got shot and killed, and his body was right there on the sand. They put a white blanket over his body. Apparently, one other guy got caught, but the other two escaped.”

The coke boat, according to our source, slipped out of Pavones just before midnight, heading south to rendezvous with another vessel about 70 miles offshore, who was carrying the mother-load. The plan was simple enough: get the stash ashore and hustle it north by land. But the whole thing unraveled when the feds caught wind. 

Allegedly, the pursuit was led by the United States Coast Guard, with a few DEA friends tagging along for the ride. With roughly 500 kilos in the hold and a street value of around $12.5 million, this was no small-time operation.

“It’s never been like this here,” says the local source. “Sure, there’ve been whispers — ‘Oh, bricks were found on the beach, rumour has it so-and-so got some and that’s why he’s flashing new stuff.’ There’s always been a narco presence, but it’s been kept quiet. No one’s talking because there’s no real narco vibe or investment here. But this was a big move. A lot of weight. And the cop boat had four engines — proper drug-chasing boat.”