Testigo Directo (Direct Witness) is a Colombian TV show that presents independent investigative journalism on different sensitive topics, one of their series “El ventilador de los narcos” presents detailed information on the drug trafficking business in Colombia and even interviews with former members of cartels that explain in detail how the operations work. The show is presented by Rafael Poveda and directed by Alexander Oyola.

In the second part of this show, which aired in Colombia on September 29, touches on how the drug moves from Colombia to other countries “Colombia isn’t the only country that is part of the illegality, also, several sectors from countries such as Panama, Spain, Japan and Costa Rica, among others, are part of this violated world map”.

The witness interviewed , “Juan” (protected identity), used to be a coordinator for the trafficking groups, who decided to reveal his secrets after they killed his parents due to a “fallen” cargo, he speaks with his face covered and his voice modified and describes how they send the drug by sea and then transport it by ground:

“We send the drug to Costa Rica, as I said, in containers to the Limon Port, over there we have a contact with the owner of a cement company, they carry the cement to Costa Rica, we send a maximum of 100 kilos per truck, that company has, I could say, maybe 200 trucks working”, the journalist, Alexander Oyola, comments “our source assures, that this type of work is done once a month, and also, that there are authorities getting paid in these countries”, the voice of the witness continues “In Costa Rica everything is working just like here in Colombia, the criminal gangs charging the ‘tax’, a lot of work is being done”… “everyone that works in this have their companies legally established, there are businessmen, big businessmen here in Colombia that take care of bringing the money in, all of it product of drug trafficking, and they legalize it through their companies, that’s the last link in the chain, it’s something that has to happen”.

The work of “Juan” is basically that of a logistics coordinator, he gets the information on all the shipments, the contacts, etc. In the first part of the show he confirms that they receive the help of antinarcotic agents, who pay off other people in the ports etc. to just let the shipments through, “they (drug traffickers) request the routes through Costa Rica, Panama , Puerto Valencia, Puerto Limon, Japan”. According to the witness, some companies are not even aware that they are carrying the drugs in the containers; they break the seals of the container, take out some of the original and legal merchandise and conceal the drug packets in the shipments, and reseal the container as if nothing had happened. “In Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, we have a consolidated route, I have my contacts, Hector, who works with me, he is from the Netherlands, and we work from Cartagena to Costa Rica and from there to other destinations”.. .

You can watch the show (in Spanish) in YouTube:

PART 1:

PART 2: