Costa Rica with US help nabs 21 suspects linked to human trafficking

SAN JOSE (Reuters) - An extensive police operation in Costa Rica on Tuesday resulted in the arrests of 21 people suspected of links to an international human-trafficking network operating between Ecuador and the United States, police said.

Costa Rican officials coordinated with U.S. and Panamanian authorities for the operation which included 18 raids in different parts of the Central American country.

Authorities are aiming to stem the growing flow of migrants seeking to reach the United States through Latin America. Despite a recent decrease, tens of thousands of migrants each month cross the treacherous Darien Gap jungle passage between Panama and Colombia on their long journey north.

The suspects arrested are accused of providing illegal logistics services in Costa Rica as part of the land route between Ecuador and the U.S., a journey they charged $14,000 per person to more than a hundred migrants, Costa Rican police said.

The migrants who paid for the trip were mainly from Ecuador, though some were from Africa and Asia.

After crossing illegally into Costa Rica from Panama, "the members of the criminal network took the migrants to houses and hotels where they stayed while their transfer to the northern border (with Nicaragua) was coordinated," said the police statement.

"It is a complex human trafficking scheme. This is the Costa Rican phase of an international operation," said Mario Zamora, Costa Rica's security minister.

Panama and the U.S. agreed in July to crack down on migration through the Darien Gap, which included Washington covering the costs of deporting migrants who cross irregularly into the Central American nation.

Costa Rica is also considering a similar deportation deal with the U.S.

(Report by Álvaro Murillo; Editional reporting by Elida Moreno, Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Josie Kao)