Costa Rica's parliament is moving to give police a blunt new tool against drug trafficking: the power to demolish clandestine airstrips without waiting for a criminal conviction. The Security and Narcotrafficking Committee approved the bill unanimously this week, and it now heads to a first-round vote in the full Legislative Assembly. It is not law yet.
Under the proposal, sent to Congress in June by President Laura Fernández as part of a six-bill crackdown on organized crime, the Civil Aviation Directorate could formally declare a strip, airfield or helipad illegal through an administrative process. Owners and tenants would get a 10-business-day window to present evidence before the Air Surveillance Service moves in with bulldozers. The measures target sites linked to drug trafficking, money laundering and human trafficking.
The penalties are stiff. Building or enabling a clandestine strip would carry five to 10 years in prison, up from the current three to eight, and rebuilding a demolished one would mean 10 to 15 years. Fines for landing at unauthorized facilities would double, and machinery, vehicles and aircraft used on the projects could be permanently forfeited, administered by the Costa Rican Drug Institute. Prosecutors could also freeze the underlying property in the National Registry, blocking any sale or mortgage.
The scale of the problem is fuzzy by design — the strips are built to stay hidden. The president has estimated close to 200 exist; the last official count, from 2020, identified more than 140, and at least 20 have been destroyed since then. Existing Law 9902 already lets authorities disable illegal strips, but critics say it lacks teeth for seizing the assets used to build them.
Not everyone is convinced. Left-wing deputy José María Villalta called it the first bill in the package that could genuinely hurt criminal groups because it hits their infrastructure, but he flagged a possible conflict with a separate tourist airparks bill. Legal analysts note that an innocent landowner might have no idea a strip is operating on their property — a concern deputies say the due-process amendments were meant to address.
For travellers, this is mostly background reassurance rather than a direct warning. The strips are remote, rural infrastructure used by traffickers, not anything visitors come across. But they signal why Costa Rica's security agenda — and its tourism reputation — are so closely linked: a country that markets itself on rainforests, surf and safe roads has a real stake in showing it can push back on the smuggling routes that cross it. If you're planning a trip, expect the crackdown to continue quietly in the countryside while the beaches and national parks carry on as normal.
