In just two days in March, officers from Fuerza Publica, Costa Rica’s national police force, and its Operational Support Group (Spanish initials: GAO) detained a German couple, a man from the Czech Republic, and a man from Nicaragua in a series of alleged financial crimes ranging from financial fraud to money laundering and possession of counterfeit documents with the intent to defraud a financial institution.

International Arrest

A press release published on March 19^th indicates that GAO officers looking for a Czech national by the last name of Karpjak received a tip that led to his capture. The tip came from Pavas, a populous western suburb of San Jose. The information explained that the suspect was traveling in a white passenger vehicle without license plates, and his companions seemed to be acting as armed bodyguards.

Karpjak was subject to an INTERPOL notice for alleged financial crimes in his native land. GAO officers in Costa Rica are trained to carry out different tasks, including special weapons and tactics (SWAT) operations and surveillance. Since the tip on the foreigner indicated armed companions, a GAO was assembled to take the suspect down and neutralize his alleged protectors. Shots were not fired, and the officers also found evidence of cigarette smuggling in the suspect’s car: Three cardboard boxes containing 34,000 smokes. The Costa Rica Star has been reporting on the rise of tobacco smuggling in this country ever since an anti-tobacco law was enacted a couple of years ago.

German Couple Loaded with Euros

GAO field agents tailing a German couple through the busy streets of the lovable city of San Jose and reporting to their superiors at a remote command center got a green light to stop and search their suspects on March 19^th.

Just as they thought, the couple were carrying a briefcase loaded with 190,000 euros and no supporting documentation as to their provenance. The couple were walking towards a parking lot in the heart of downtown San Jose, and GAO officers did not feel like initiating a vehicle pursuit. The cash was confiscated and the couple was turned over to prosecutors.

False ID Leads to Arrest

A 27-year old Nicaraguan man attempted to withdraw money from a bank account he allegedly controlled at a branch in downtown San Jose during lunch time on March 20th. Bank tellers noticed that the conditional residency card presented by the man looked suspicious and thus contacted Fuerza Publica.

When the officers approached the man, he seemed to have a familiar face. It so happens that on that same morning, the suspect had been at Fuerza Publica’s fingerprint station in downtown San Jose. It turns out that the suspect is an applicant for legal residence in Costa Rica through a relative. This stage of the application process made it easy for officers to ascertain the suspect’s true identity since they already had his fingerprints.