She called herself “La Sicaria”, and advertised on social media that she would “kill anyone for c50,000”, or $78.00. This week she was convicted of seducing a man and luring him to his death in San Juan de Dios, Desamparados. Her real name is Carolina del Carmen Requene, a 26-year old single mother of three, originally from Nicaragua, but residing in Costa Rica for most of her adult life. The ter...

Six people were murdered on October 17th on the private property of American Stephen Paul Sandusky of Buenos Aires, Puntarenas, Costa Rica. The police arrived at 1AM on October 18th, and have consistently told the press that they are investigating this slaughter as a robbery gone wrong. Was it? Neighbors aren’t so sure. Sandusky was a 61-year old former Floridian, divorced father of two sons. H...

According to the Missing Americans Project, a nonprofit organization helping to track Americans and other nationals who vanish in Costa Rica and elsewhere, disappearances of foreigners are under-reported and not closely monitored by any organization. “Families of people who go missing outside their country’s borders frequently find themselves alone and struggling”, according to the organization’s ...

When your lover’s old boyfriend shows up unannounced at your front door, it often means big trouble. This was the case for 57-year old American David Baldino Dominic, who died in a hail of bullets on May 14th, in front of his home in Herradura, Puntarenas. The accused killer is a Nicaraguan by the name of Acuna Centero who came looking for his ex at Dominic’s house early Friday morning. The uniden...

In the first three months of 2021, Costa Rican authorities have seized 19 tons of illegal drugs which is excellent, but what happens to those drugs? The Minister of Security Michael Soto and individuals involved in drug trafficking seem to disagree on the fate of confiscated drugs in Costa Rica. Soto claims that under Costa Rican law, the storage and destruction of all seized drugs – regardless...

The owner of the luxury hotel La Mansion Inn of Manuel Antonio, Harry Bodaan, has received a six-month extension of his house arrest, accused of the murder of anesthesiologist Dra. Maria Luisa Cedeno Quesada at his hotel in July. The doctor’s family has commented, “This is a very painful crime, terribly atrocious and terribly violent. What the family wants is justice – that is swift and final.” ...

Costa Rican authorities seized 2 tons of cocaine that were found hidden inside a container in APM Terminals in Moín, Limón. Scanners showed something suspicious and the Drug Control Police proceeded to inspect the container which was loaded with pineapples in route Costa Rica – Belgium, among the cargo police officers found 2,000 packages of cocaine each weighing approximately 1 kilogram. ...

Organized crime in Costa Rica and throughout Latin America has discovered a way to take advantage of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, while keeping their profits high and their traffickers gainfully employed. INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) has discovered substandard facemasks, counterfeit hand sanitizers, and most recently, bogus COVID-19 injections that traffickers refer ...

Costa Rica, like many Latin American countries, is experiencing tough economic times as the year 2020 comes to an end. Unemployment is at 25% (Our last report here was 24.4%), and many businesses have been forced to close down, of which most never to reopen. COVID-19 hit the country hard beginning in March, and lots of individuals were caught unprepared. Many people had already taken out loans fro...

Costa Rican authorities with the assistance of the USA Coast Guard Service detained two vessels carrying over 2.4 Tons of cocaine in waters of the Pacific. In under 4 hours, the same Coast Guard Service crew patrolling waters of the South Pacific alerted about the presence of a suspicious motorboat at around 7 p.m. on Friday, December 19, the same was intercepted 150 kilometers from Golfito, th...

Even narco-traffickers are getting into the Christmas spirit this year. The Costa Rican Minister of Public Security reported that last weekend the Costa Rican Coast Guard along with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), halted an Ecuadorian boat and its Costa Rican sister vessel containing 422 packets of cocaine – all prettily wrapped and decorated with Christmas gift wrap, featuring be...

On January 8, 2010, the Red Cross received an emergency call for a dead American in Florida de Baru. The ambulance driver who was first on the scene described walking into John Bender’s bedroom and seeing “a blanket of jewels”, both cut and uncut, strewn about the bedroom and stuffed loosely into backpacks – over 3,000 jewels in total. What has happened to them all? When the police arrived at t...

In the year 2018, more than 400 Costa Rican women were forced to flee their homes due to abuse from their significant other. This year the challenges are greater due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation is being called the “Shadow Pandemic’’, a pandemic that accompanies the coronavirus and keeps abused women living with their abusers. November 25 has been dubbed by the United Nations as Intern...

The Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) announced Tuesday the capture and detention of three suspects in the case of missing American/Costa Rican, Christian Tijerino Lopez. Tijerino disappeared on February 18 in Bagaces, Guanacaste, while on his way to the beach to surf for the day. His Ford Explorer was found abandoned in front of the Bagaces School, where he had apparently run out of gasol...

Lic. Mario Cerdac Salazar has been detained six times for operating a marijuana grow house on his terrace – within sight of the Alajuela Courthouse. He has never been to prison. He will now attend a hearing on November 4 th ,   according to the Supreme Court of Justice’s weekly bulletin. Cerdas has long been a self-proclaimed advocate of recreational marijuana use, something many expats also enjoy...

Costa Rican authorities located 2.4 tons of cocaine in a container that arrived from Colombia and located in a container transport facility in Liverpool, Limón, in the Caribbean of the country. The investigators of the Drug Control Police carefully checked the container in a routine inspection and found a total of 2,420 packages containing what apparently was cocaine. Each package weighed appr...

What began as a routine investigation of suspicious activity in a condominium in Escazu on Wednesday, culminated in the seizure by the Fuerza Publica of almost two tons of cocaine, $1.5 million dollars, and c235 million colones. The condo is located in the Trejos Montealegre area of San Rafael de Escazu. Three people were detained in connection with the drug bust: two Colombian males, and a Costa ...

A shipment of drugs was found hidden inside a container loaded with bananas in the APM Terminal dock in Limon, the container had Amberes, Belgium as the final destination. In total, Drug Control Police (PCD) of the Ministry of Security found a total 2,903 kilograms of cocaine in one of the containers that were randomly selected to be scanned. The packages were distributed in 117 black gym bags....

On May 23, 2018, Italian fruit exporter Salvatore Ponzo was found dead in a pool of blood, in front of the Italian Embassy in San Jose. Two gunmen had pulled up on a blue dirt bike as Ponzo and his girlfriend were exiting. Ponzo was felled by six bullets, his girlfriend was seriously wounded. This January, Italian courts shed light on who Ponzo really was: a cocaine smuggler who had stolen a shipm...

The family and friends of Albert Lusk are offering a reward of ONE MILLION COLONES (Around $1700 USD) to the person(s) who can help locate this missing American. Albert never returned from his usual hike on the morning of September 21, in the area known as Cerro Turu, near the Parque Nacional Braulio Carillo. His car was found on Calle Brena Mora. His usual hike was up to a waterfall on the Rio...

Thirty people fanned out on Friday October the 2nd searching for 67-year old Albert Lusk, who disappeared twelve days ago. The group included members of the Red Cross, firemen, members of the Fuerza Publica, and the Organismo de investigacion Judicial (OIJ). Sniffer dogs were brought in capable of finding both survivors, and forensic remains of those who have perished. Searchers combed the mountai...

On February 15, 2020, Costa Rica stopped a shipment of over five tons of cocaine – the biggest drug bust in Costa Rican history – headed for the Netherlands. This drug interdiction was a triumph, but shined a bright light on the Costa Rican cocaine trafficking problem. “In Costa Rica, we are facing a tsunami of cocaine, and it’s drowning us”, stated former chief of Costa Rica’s national anti-drug ...

The Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) is asking for the public’s help in finding an American citizen named Albert George Lusk (67), who disappeared on September 21 in San Isidro de Heredia Province, leaving his car on a remote road as he often did before hiking to his favorite waterfall. Sadly, on that day, Lusk seems to have never returned from his walk. Mel Rivera, a resident on that ...

Muffadal Saylawa, Founder and CEO of Oro Chocolate, was en route to Chocoa, Europe’s largest sustainable chocolate convention, when disaster struck. He was traveling well-prepared, having bought plane tickets to Amsterdam, booked an airb&b, rented a booth at the convention, and recruited his sister to help with sales – Muffadal was filled with hope for taking his gourmet chocolate company to t...

The United States Coastguard Service intercepted in international waters a Costa Rican vessel with four people aboard and upon inspection discovered 700 packages of cocaine, each with a weight of close to 1 kilogram. The four men, three Costa Rican and one Nicaraguan with ages ranging from 33 to 48 years were arrested and turned to Costa Rican authorities in Golfito, Puntarenas. As a result ...

The autopsy report of the brutal murder of CIMA Hospital doctor of anesthesiology, Dra. Maria Luisa Cedeno, was released today (Tuesday Aug 8th 2020), revealing the violent attack she received prior to being killed by one or more person on July 20th. The cause of death is listed as a fatal blow to the back of the neck, but she suffered blows and stab wounds – even bites – to her body prior to her ...

Late last month Costa Rican authorities completed 32 raids, arresting 27 people involved in illegal mining and an affiliated gold-laundering ring. The investigation began in April 2019, after authorities at San Jose’s Juan Santamaria International Airport noticed an unprecedented increase in the amount of gold listed in export documents filed. The investigation was thorough and intense, uncover...

Coronavirus has created a true health crisis around the world. Most governments do not seem to be clear about the best way to tackle this problem; and the imposition of different types of restrictions on free transit, commerce, and tourism,  has been the general rule adopted. These restrictions have a negative effect on the economy, causing the loss of jobs, the disappearance of companies, the clo...

The third man accused of the murder of CIMA Hospital doctor Maria Luisa Cadeno, Dutch millionaire Harry Bodaan, is now under house arrest for the July 20 murder of Dra. Cedeno. On Friday, Bodaan surrendered his passport, relinquished his cell phone, has been barred from all travel, and will be wearing a “tobillera electronica”, a monitoring ankle bracelet. He has been forbidden to speak with the o...

The tagline of the 5-Star resort La Mansion Inn is “You come as a guest, but leave as a friend.” Dra. Maria Luisa Cedeno Quesada (43), wasn’t even able to leave alive. Three men are in custody for her murder, including the owner of the hotel, Harry J. Bodaan, a longtime fixture on the Manuel Antonio social scene, often referred to as the Ambassador of Quepos. Bodaan (69), was taken into police cus...

Location: Escazu, San Jose Events: Temporary Suspension of Municipal Police Services in Escazu (San Jose) Embassy contacts have confirmed the Policia Municipalidad Escazu (Escazu Municipal Police or PME, which is the largest police force in Escazu) has temporarily suspended public services after staff tested positive for COVID-19. PME officials have reported that all PME staff are observing ...

Costa Rican border police officers seized this week a total of 1,552 kilograms of marijuana that was hidden close to the estuaries, in the Sierpe water lands in the county of Osa in Puntarenas. The police found 60 packages hidden under black plastic, nearby they located three men, two Costa Ricans, and a Nicaraguan who attempted to escape but were eventually caught and placed under arrest. I...

UPDATED :07/28/20 With the recent surge of COVID-19 deaths in Costa Rica, it is easy to overlook the fact that homicides are also still on the rise. Nothing has brought that home quite like the July 19th homicide of anesthesiologist Dr. Maria Luisa Cedeno Quesada, in a hotel room in Manuel Antonio, Puntarenas. She was only 43 years old. Dr. Cedeno was the head of Anesthesiology and Recovery ...

The Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) confirmed that according to the autopsy results a body found back on July 4th in the area of Jaco, corresponds to Karin Holzapfel, a 32-year-old German tourist that had been reported missing on June 28th. The family of the victim posted made the following post on Facebook: “It is with deep sorrow and regret to inform you all that yesterday, July 17, a...

On March 27, eleven days after the first confirmed COVID-19 case, the head of Public Security (Direccion General de Armamento Publica) temporarily suspended all psychological exams and practice tests for those wanting new gun permits. Citing concerns of COVID transmission, all in-person applications and renewals for gun permits are suspended until further notice. People seeking work as private ...

Costa Rica’s Immigration Police (Policia Profesional de Migracion, PPM) have arrested a Swiss citizen by the name of Heinz Augsburguer for swindle and other nonviolent crimes – all while using the stolen identity of Polish citizen Grzegorz Bugaj. Augsburguer has been living in San Jose since 2014, under the assumed name of Bugaj, and has opened bank accounts, credit cards, created sociedades anoni...

Carolina Vargas, a Costa Rican who has worked as an Uber driver in Tennessee for a pair of years, barely survived an assault from an Uber client. Vargas (26) drives a black 2011 Ford Explorer, yet was found by a Good Samaritan on the side of the road, injured, dazed, bleeding profusely, and missing three teeth – but alive after having saved herself by jumping out of her moving car. The car was gon...

James Allen Honer and his fiancée Bianca Mena Sibaja were well on their way to planning their dream wedding, when suddenly their family and friends stopped hearing from them. On May 3rd, their charred bodies were found by firemen putting out a fire on a nearby mango farm in Atenas, Alajuela. Honer (77), was an American retired lawyer, and Bianca (30), was a Tica student – a fantasy romance that...

Authorities had predicted a lower murder rate in Costa Rica for the year 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Costa Rica is honoring stay-at-home orders by the government, vehicular restrictions, many businesses closed or with limited shop hours, diminished public transportation, fewer people in the streets, compliance with social distancing, and a robust police presence in public areas. Yet betwee...

In this challenging time of people having to hunker down in their homes due to the novel coronavirus, Netflix has served up a delightfully weird true story of Joe Exotic a outrageously flaboyant big cat animal park owner and Carole Baskin an American woman who allegedly killed her husband before he could leave her to move to Costa Rica. Carole's late husband Don Lewis has never been found and no b...