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Costa Rica's largest ever haul of cocaine has been seized from a shipment of ornamental flowers bound for the Netherlands.About 5.8 tonnes of the drug was found in 202 briefcases hidden inside a container at a port in Limon.Police said they found 5,048 packages of cocaine weighing 1kg (2.2lbs) each.Image:The cocaine has been transferred to a stockroom at San Jose airportA ship was due to set sail to Rotterdam on Saturday when the drugs control police detected some suspicious containers.They sent them to be scanned and detected the packages of cocaine hidden inside the ornamental plant shipment.Security forces then seized the cocaine and transferred it to a drugs stockroom at San Jose airport.Police arrested a Costa Rican lorry driver, 46, who had delivered the containers to the port and said he has no criminal record.Because of its location and shipping network, Costa Rica has a major problem with drug trafficking which dates back to the mid-1980s.As the US has tightened its borders and its anti-drug operations, drug trafficking has worsened in Costa Rica.The country is often used as a pit-stop for drug traffickers and a refuelling stop for shipments coming from Colombia and Panama.
