Michael Soto, the new Minister of Public Security in Costa Rica recently visited the Northern frontier, in particular the area of Crucitas which has presented a growing problem due to the presence of gold panners, the majority of them illegal immigrants, who have caused incredible environmental damage.

Reinforcing the security and control in the North frontier has become one of the priorities in Soto’s agenda, who plans on establishing five police stations in this area.

“There is a project that was already planned, which involves the creation of five police stations in the areas of Boca de San Carlos, Agua Dulce, Tiricias, Delta Costa Rica and Barra del Colorado, making use of infrastructure already in place that belong to the Ministry of Environment and energy along with building new stations in a medium term timeline”, explained Soto during an interview.

The new stations will help prevent the illegal entry of Nicaraguans that are trying to access the area of Crucitas to extract gold. Information by the Ministry of Security shows that 95% of the gold panners in Crucitas come from Nicaragua.

“According to reports, in the highest peak of the problem there were as many as 4000 people illegally extracting gold, by Thursday there were between 50 to 100; there is an important decrease, but we cannot let our guard now because what happened some months back could happen again”, commented Soto.

300 officers are currently in training to be part of the Frontier/border Police.