Agents from the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) are investigating a shooting that left one man dead and another one injured in the outskirts of Heredia. The violent incident took place over the weekend, and the two young Asian victims are believed to have been intercepted and abducted before being shot.

The decedent has been identified as Liu Jian Hun, who was 24 years old at the time of his demise; he was gagged and bound before being punched in the face several times and executed by a single shot to the chest. Liu Jian’s killers dumped his lifeless body in an agricultural plot of land located in San José de la Montaña, not far from the road that leads to the community of Cipreses.

According to a press release published by OIJ, Liu Jian was traveling to Alajuela with an 18-year old friend whose family name is Seng. At least two suspects in a vehicle rushed the two victims off the road when they were near the Real Cariari Mall, not far from the Hard Rock Cafe, around midnight. The suspects commandeered the victims’ Volkswagen Jetta and drove them towards the mountainous region of Heredia with another car following behind.

A news report filed by Daniel Chinchilla Salazar of daily tabloid Diario Extra indicates that Liu Jian’s companion could have faced the same destiny as his friend; however, the 18-year old Mr. Seng was able to flee on foot. The suspects shot at Mr. Seng several times as he ran away and hid in a coffee field; he later realized that he sustained a bullet wound in his gluteus.

Mr. Seng was taken to the hospital in Heredia. OIJ investigators are considering robbery as one of the motives of the ghastly incident; however, the modus operandi of the suspects, who knew exactly where and when they would be able to intercept the Asian victims, suggests the possibility of an execution ordered by an organized crime group.

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star in 2013:

The cold-blooded murder of an Asian man in Downtown San Jose is renewing fears that Chinese Triads and other Asian organized crime groups might be increasing their presence in Costa Rica.

The execution of Mr. Huanglee conforms to the work of a hitman under the employ of an Asian Triad. In recent years, the National Commission for the Improvement of Judicial Administration (Spanish acronym: CONAMAJ) has been tracking reports of criminal activity by Asian organized crime groups in Costa Rica. These reports include the kidnapping of a fisherman in Limon over an alleged drug debt. The ransom demand in this case was consistent with Asian Triad custom: Deliver the money or body parts will be cut.

Also in Limon, prosecutors have been paying attention to the increased participation of Chinese nationals with regard to large-scale smuggling of liquor into Costa Rica. In 2004, Panamanian law enforcement investigated 18 people involved in the kidnapping of Chinese national Yu Wei Qui, and one of them was found to have faced a murder charge in Costa Rica.