Renting hotels and low interest loans to entrepreneurs with financial problems, have joined other traditional forms of money laundering.

The latest news from the U.S. State Department on the subject, shows that profits from trafficking in cocaine and other drugs, internet gambling, financial fraud, human trafficking, corruption and smuggling, are the sources of the assets that are “cleaned” in Costa Rica “.

An article in CRHoy.com reports that the Costa Rican government has stated that “the country is a bridge used by foreign organizations to send funds to and from other countries, using money trafficking across borders, offshore companies or financial institutions” .

The U.S. State Department said that there is a high amount of dollar smuggling across the borders of Panama and Nicaragua, noting its favorable geographical location for drug traffickers, adding that in Costa Rica “… there are several obstacles to the Government of Costa Rica performing effective investigations and prosecuting money laundering offenses … “.

Another review article in Crhoy.com reports on criminal events of recent months, which show that the hotel industry, still overwhelmed by the crisis in the tourism sector, is flooded with rental deals and “special” loans designed purely for laundering money.”… A way of legitimizing money is to justify the deposits of large sums of money in banking agencies, reporting a total occupancy of the hotel, but in reality there are empty rooms.”