Clandestine Cartel Heliports Are Ruining Central America’s Forests
… according to the Ministry of Defense. Ever since, Costa Rican counternarcotics squads have busted up nine suspected drug smuggling heliports and two attending base camps, …
We’ve reported on drug trafficking’s destruction of Central America’s rainforests before, but the environmental impacts of this sort of deforestation can’t be overstated. This is going on in “a region of exceptional biodiversity of global significance,” according to a recent scientific paper published jointly by the Mesoamerican People’s Alliance and the Forestry and Salvodoran Research Program on Development and Environment, with help from Mexican and Central American NGOs and US universities.
The US government, for its part, is offering some tactical assistance. Earlier this month, the US Embassy in Costa Rica helped that country’s Aerial Surveillance Service (SVA) acquire a police helicopter. The aircraft, SVA Oldemar Madrigal told reporters, is knitted out with night vision tech and an external cargo hook, and utilizes NOTAR, or No Tail Rotor, which dampens any harsh thump that would otherwise be picked up by drug traffickers well before a raid.
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