Last night during a street patrol, tourist police seized 541 doses of LSD in the center of Montezuma de Cóbano, a popular coastal tourist and surf town on the southern part of the Nicoya peninsula in the province of Puntarenas.

Police said they believe the drugs may have been thrown out onto the street by local traffickers who got nervous by the police’s presence.

LSD is a powerful and dangerous mood altering chemical, created in clandestine laboratories mainly in the United States, said police. It is sold in the form of small tablets, almost always wrapped in colorful, edible paper.

The Public Security Ministry’s tourist police is involved with local drug dealing problems mainly in coastal areas, and other of the country’s main tourist attraction.

Last night, police also reported capturing narcotics on the streets of downtown Puntarenas, where they carried out operations directed against the local trafficking; and police also seized drugs in downtown Alajuela and in Palmares, among other communities in the country, said the ministry press office.