The statistics of the Costa Rica's Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) show that between the months of January and April of 2017 a total of 45 people reported being victims of rape after being drugged in parties in different areas of the country, this number is the highest reported in the last few years. Alexander Arroniz, chief of the sexual crimes unit of the OIJ explains that criminals are u...

A private lawsuit has been brought against the Municipality of Garabito, in Costa Rica's Central Pacific region, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) and the Directorate General of Transit (DGT) for a perceived dangerous situation along the southern Pacific coastal highway. Walter Brenes, a lawyer with the Energy Law Firm (ELF), filed the injunction against the entities requesting ...

The U.S. State Department found significant improvement in Costa Rica's governmental efforts to prosecute human traffickers, protect victims and prevent this heinous crime, according to the agency's 2017 Report on Trafficking in Persons published last week. In the case of Costa Rica, the government's efforts showed notable success when compared with the 2016 study, allowing country to rise a le...

The President of Costa Rica's Criminal Cassation Chamber Judge Doris Arias Madrigal, inaugurated Tuesday June 27  the first biregional meeting on innovations in addressing drug related offenses in which Caribbean, European and Latin American countries exchanged information and experiences. Judge Arias Madrigal stressed the importance of working on strategies for a comprehensive approach to drug...

In April, a Costa Rican woman, Eugenia Cartín, said a call she had made to complain about her Internet service with Tigo had been released on social media, and had caused her immense emotional strife and also affected her professional work as a translator, according to reports in local media. During the 15-minute call, apparently Cartín used very strong language. In the aftermath of the publ...

The Costa Rican police dismantled a criminal band that was offering luxury houses, drugs and women to tourists in the Jacó area. The police operations took place in five locations in Jacó, Puntarenas and La Uruca, San José. The main target of this band were tourists with high purchasing power to whom they’d offer illegal drugs (marijuana, cocaine, LSD, etc.) and a catalog of women for sexual se...

John Felix Bender, an American multi-millionaire hedge fund manager was found dead in his bed in Florida de Baru, Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica, with a bullet through the back of his head, in January 2010. His widow, Ann Patton Bender, was the only one at home with him at the time of his death. Since that tragic night, Ann Bender has been through three trials for intentional homicide, has served ni...

Would you expect to find 19 roosters stashed in the trunk of a car? Well, Costa Rican police officers in the southern San José district of Desamparados were sure surprised when they decided to follow and search a suspicious-looking car. They found roosters stashed in the car trunk along with various implements used for cock fighting including 81 spurs for the roosters. When police were pa...

Around dawn today, Monday, June 26, San José, Costa Rica's police received an usual phone call. A man who had broken into someone's home was fast asleep on the couch, reported Channel 7 Teletica television news station. Apparently the man intended to rob a house in San Francisco de Dos Ríos, a southern San José district, but fell asleep in the living room instead. The home happened to be ...

On June 21, 2017, the former head of the Costa Rica Public Force (Fuerza Publica) was detained and arrested near Orotina for possible drug smuggling. Pizarro and three others were stopped on Highway 27, at Kilometer 57, in the Province of Alajuela. They were traveling in a truck with a false truck bed which contained 237 kilograms of cocaine. Pizarro was appointed Director of the Fuerza Publica...

A U.S. native by the last name of Baylor was refused entry into Costa Rica on June 15 for traveling with a stolen passport, reported local Channel 7 Teletica TV news. The man somehow managed to evade security checks at the country's main Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela near the capital city, and entered the country anyway, said the report. Police then issued an alert, and a...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  A lone shooter took aim at the U.S. Government early Wednesday morning in an act described as “political terrorism” injuring Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise -- a high-ranking Republican -- plus a staff member of Texas Rep. Roger Williams and two Capitol Pol...

A joint Eurojust-Europol press release on Tuesday, June 13, 2017 said a network of payment card fraudsters was dismantled through a cross-border action that led to numerous arrests. The credit and debit card skimming affected some 3,000 people in the EU whose information was then used to make illegal purchases in Costa Rica, Europe and other parts of the world. The victims lost at least EUR 500,0...

Monday, June 12, President Luis Guillermo Solís asked the Minister of Public Works and Transport Carlos Villalta to resign as a result of a domestic violence complaint filed against Villalta, allegedly by his former wife; reported the government press office. President Solís said to Villalta that, as a general principle, the government maintains absolute respect for laws against domestic violen...

Saturday, police surprised a nervous-looking Italian man at the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) in Alajuela, Costa Rica. It turns out he was attempt to smuggle cocaine out of the country by carrying it in his stomach. This marks the 17th person to be caught muling drugs this year at the airport, said the Public Security Ministry. Costa Rican Drug Control Police discovered that th...

Using a ¨modeling agency¨as front since 2009 several Costa Rican men are suspected of taking photos and videos of underage girls and uploading the material to different child pornography sites, as part of an international child pornography and human trafficking network. The investigation began in 2015 after the mother of a young girl reported the situation. A 36-year-old man with the last names...

Costa Rican authorities arrested five men suspected of operating in a scam from Costa Rica through a call center operation. Initially Channel 7 news  in Costa Rica informed that the United States police was after the trace of 12 US fugitives and 1 Costa Rican: Donald Harold Dodt, Dino Nastasi, Thomas Sniffen, Sabrina Joy Mommers, Stephen Fink, Jordan Gavin, David Fairchild, Barry Harmelin, Patr...

After selecting last November the Banco de Costa Rica to finance and manage a health infrastructure trust fund, the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) which runs the country's health services and the BCR signed the agreement last month to proceed with building health infrastructure throughout the country. According to María del Rocío Sáenz Madrigal, who this week was asked to resign as e...

The Costa Rican Public Security Ministry ordered the deportation of an alleged Salvadoran gang member this week. The effort is part of a national increased policy of expediting deportations of violent or dangerous foreigners, said Gustavo Mata Vega, minister of public security. The El Salvador national, Alfaro Muñoz, 26, was identified as hailing from the La Vega neighborhood of San Salvador...

The Central American Security Commission approved this week a plan against organized crime and for the prevention of violence against women. Representatives of the Central American Integration System (SICA, its initials in Spanish) member countries met to discuss security and foreign affairs this week in San José. The SICA's Central American Security Commission (CSC) approved a technical...

Saturday, June 3 around 2:30 p.m., at the beach Organos, Paquera in Puntarenas, authorities were alerted to the presence of a more than 8-foot long crocodile. Though part of the animal's usual habits, to come out of nearby rivers and roam beaches, the animals do pose an increasing risk to growing numbers of tourists to some beaches. According to the communications department of the fire depa...

Costa Rica's Emergency Medical Response Team is the first in the Americas to achieve the EMT recognition by the World Health Organization. Costa Rica's emergency response team (EMT) is now recognized among the world's emergency medical teams that can be deployed quickly when requested by countries affected by disasters or emergencies, said the WHO last week.     Meanwhile...

The Global Peace Index (GPI) 2017 published by the Institute for Economics and Peace found that the world became 0.28% more peaceful over the past year, even though over the last decade it has become considerably less peaceful. The GPI takes into consideration peace indicators such as the homicide rate, the impact of terrorism, armed services personnel in the population, relationship with neigh...

Over the past week alone, six foreigners have been detained by police, and some already have their deportation orders approved, said the Public Security Ministry press office. A directive was issued to tighten controls on foreigners with criminal records or behaviors by Costa Rica's Minister of Public Security Gustavo Mata Vega in the wake of the May 15 shootout in Guachipelín, Escazú. The shoo...

The Costa Rican judiciary celebrates five years of a successful restorative justice program that has now earned its place as part of the country's public policy, said the judiciary press office in a statement this week. The nationwide program has linked its efforts to all sectors of the government as well as private and civic groups, and its work to rehabilitate adult and juvenile criminals ove...

While it might be tempting to grab a bag of inexpensive fruit from a street vendor on your next trip to downtown San José, you should think twice about the quality of what you are buying. San José municipal police are amping up their operations in the center to curb informal sales of products along the streets. On a patrol this week, police on bicycle retrieved bags of fruit hidden in storm ...

An American citizen wanted by authorities in Texas on charges of pedophilia was arrested Friday in the northern Chiriquí region of Panama near the Costa Rica border, according to Panama national media. The American has been identified as Carl Anthony Barroso, 68. After his arrest by the Panamanian national police he was sent to immigration authorities for his deportation to the U.S., said the S...

Costa Rican Public Security Minister Gustavo Mata Vega spoke to the Horizontes Costa Rica radio program yesterday to urge more resources for combatting cocaine trafficking and related crime. A satellite image produced by the radio program and published on their website depicts Pacific sea routes from cocaine-producing South American countries that are thought to be drug-related. So many routes ...

Captain Paul Watson and his not for profit Sea Shepherd crews work around the clock to protect marine life when no one else will. Sea Shepherds involvement and aide in the protection of Costa Rican marine life over the years has been absolute regardless of the very questionable political issues and agenda which surrounds Captain Paul Watson and the country. If you care about protecting ou...

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis inaugurated Saturday a US$2.5 million Coast Guard Station in the country's south Pacific. The station was donated by the United States military's Southern Command (Southcom). The president's office said in a statement that the station, located in Golfito, Puntarenas province, was inaugurated by President Solis, Public Security Minister Gustavo Mata, Na...

A 35-year-old man by the last names Rojas Retana was arrested this past Tuesday by the Costa Rican police in Desamparados, San José, as he is the main suspect of raping a 9 year-old girl on several ocassions and having distributed the pornografic material through the dark web. The Costa Rica police received an alert from Interpol stating that they had traced the origin of somo 300 videos of chi...

A Costa Rican court today sentenced a Costa Rican man named José Enrique Ríos Pérez to 10 years in prison on finding him guilty of raping a female Canadian tourist on March 31, 2016. On the day of the incident, the man and the tourist, whose identity was not disclosed by officials, met and talked in a bar, and then went to the defendant's house where she was going to pick up some coconut oil, a...

Costa Rican authorities announced they would reinforce security, including streamlining procedures to expel foreigners linked to criminal activities, following a series of recent crimes that have shocked the country. "Acts of violence in recent days have raised a justified alarm in the population and motivated new calls for attention to all authorities to intensify the fight against drug traffi...

Ariana Grande, the Italian-descent singer from Florida, U.S. is scheduled to perform at Parque Viva in La Guácima, Costa Rica on July 9. The concert's official Facebook page hinted at the possibility of a cancellation, but had no specific information in the wake of the violent UK incident that took the lives of at least 19 people, and injured at least 50, according to international press reports. ...

A reported explosion at the Ariana Grande’s concert in the packed Manchester Arena in England happened towards the end of the concert late this Monday night, causes are still unknown. The police said in a statement which was also posted on twitter: “Police responded to reports of an incident at Manchester Arena. Emergency services responding to serious incident at Manchester Arena. Avoid the ar...

Biologists wanted to find out whether drug trafficking, in addition to drug cultivation, might also affect deforestation. Noting that Central America as a region has had a net loss of forest cover over the past decade, while other parts of Latin America have slowed their forest loss, researchers wondered if the growing presence of illicit drugs had any role to play. Central American countrie...

A record number of refugee and migrant children are travelling solo to escape violence and poverty, falling prey to abuse and human traffickers in their journey to a new life, the United Nations children's agency said on Wednesday. Be it to escape war in Syria or gang violence in Central America, natural disaster or famine, increasing numbers of children are on the move and are travelling alone...

The Rangers on Cocos Island need a fast patrol vessel and Sea Shepherd can supply that need. Sea Shepherd arrives in Costa Rica today with an offer to assist the Central American country in controlling illegal fishing in the waters surrounding its Cocos Island National Park. The non-profit, anti-poaching conservation society has offered to deploy the M/V John Paul DeJoria, a 110-foot...

A deadly shooting this Monday at the entrance to a private school in the densely populated district of Guachipelin, Escazú to the west of San José, Costa Rica, has safety officials scrambling to increase security measures at schools throughout the country. Thursday, May 18, Minister of Public Security Gustavo Mata, said such an incident should never happen again in Costa Rica, and to this end i...

Following is a statement by the Costa Rican women's advocacy organization, Cefemina, in response to the kidnapping this week of a Costa Rican university student who was in Guatemala to join in a memorial of the 41 girls whose lives were lost in a fire in March. "On Monday, May 15, 2017, the 23-year-old Costa Rican woman, Shanon Moreno Castro, was kidnapped in Guatemala City by four heavily arme...