If you were near Guachipelin, Escazú Monday, May 15 around 7 a.m. and saw motorcycles or men like the ones in these pictures, your testimony could help solve this shocking shootout outside a private school. The photos were published this evening by the Judicial Investigative Police OIJ. The suspects, as can be seen in the photos, were wearing black exercise suits with broad white stripes alo...

Note - Several details have been updated in this article according to new police reports. This story was updated May 19, to include a correct name for the Lebanese homicide victim, whose name is not Akleh, as originally reported, but Akl, according to new police reports. A shootout this morning involving two cars, two dead men, two at-large suspects, and two aids on motorcycles outside a privat...

After midnight Saturday, a "Breaking Chains" police operation took place in Tamarindo, Guanacaste, a popular surf town on Costa Rica's Pacific coast. The plan - called ROCA in Spanish - is a targeted attempt to rescue victims of human trafficking and is led by Costa Rica's Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ). ROCA is an inter-institutional effort which also involves Interpol police, and a ho...

According to preliminary reports by police and in local media, a shootout took place this morning, Monday, May 15, at 7:30 in Guachipelín de Escazú in front of the Mount View Educational Center, a private school. Two people are reported dead. In the incident, a Lexus 4x4 driven by Elias Akl was shot at outside the school in the upscale western district of San José, and then entered the facility...

A report presented last week by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said their teams in Mexico treating migrants show a “pattern of violent displacement, persecution, sexual violence, and forced repatriation akin to the conditions found in the deadliest armed conflicts in the world today,” in people fleeing El Salvador, Hondura...

An average 45 percent of financial flows out of Costa Rica are considered illicit. This and other data compiled for hundreds of developing countries around the world by the nongovernmental research organization Global Financial Integrity (GFI) was detailed in a report released last week. Illicit funds are estimated to comprise about 2.5 percent of incoming funds to Costa Rica. In regional...

According to a report yesterday in The San Pedro Sun, a daily publication of San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye, Belize, Canadian national, John DeShaines, remains under police investigation as the main person of interest in a double murder in Corozal in the north of the country. The bodies of 52-year-old Canadian Francesca Matus and 36-year-old American Drew DeVoursney were found Monday, May 1 n...

Officials of Costa Rica's National Coast Guard Service, as part of their mission to protect marine biodiversity, this weekend detained a man who had 136 Leatherback sea turtle eggs in his possession, reported the Public Security Ministry. The Coast Guard's environmental unit was on patrol in the Barra de Marina region, where the Parismina beach is one of the few Atlantic beaches worldwide where...

Drug-related violence is as much a fact of life in Central America’s Northern Triangle as it is in some parts of the urban U.S. But its impact in these small Central American countries is huge, with up to 10 percent of the population of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador having fled violence and its associated poverty and insecurity according to the Washington-based Atlantic Council. This viol...

Multiple reports in U.S. and Canadian media have revealed the details currently known about the gruesome murder of a Canadian woman and her U.S. boyfriend near the northern Belize town of Corozal. Belize police determined that theft was not the motive of the murder as no money or jewelry were stolen from the couple. Of two people detained this week as suspects in the murder, one Canadian man...

Panama’s Public Prosecutor’s Office this week charged the police officer responsible for accidentally shooting a 22 -year-old American tourist in the capital's historic district April 28, reported local Panamanian media. In the incident, an agent from the Institutional Protection Service (SPI), a special police unit assigned to protecting the president and the presidential palace area, fired at...

Today Costa Rican Security Minister Gustavo Mata Vega gave highlights of one of the biggest break ups of a drug ring to date in Costa Rica. With today’s 12 arrests - 10 in Costa Rica and two in Colombia - a total of 38 people have been caught in connection with a Costa Rican-Colombian drug trafficking ring after a 2-year investigation, said the ministry press office. Costa Rica’s Drug Contro...

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 dange...

British and UK media reported over the weekend about a group of Australian and other tourists who left their hotel in Antigua, Guatemala for an excursion on a private bus, only to be shot at by a passing car and subsequently assaulted, tied up, and robbed at gunpoint. An Australian couple who was part of the kidnapped group decided to try to recuperate their thwarted vacation plans by coming to...

A 22-year-old American woman tourist is in stable condition in Panama City's Santo Tomás  hospital after a shooting incident in the downtown historic center, called Casco Viejo. In the early morning hours of Friday, April 28, the woman was unintentionally shot by an Institutional Protection Service (SPI) agent, reported the local media El Siglo. SPI director Eric Estrada was quoted as saying...

Costa Rica's Drug Control Police announced they have attacked 40 criminal structures dedicated to illegal drug trafficking since January Of these, seven were dedicated to international drug trafficking, and 33 to local drug dealing, of which 16 were family-based operations. The Ministry of Public Security said the criminal groups detected and broke up by police involved arrests in different ...

Last night, Guanacaste police chased a car from Sámara along the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica to the district of Nicoya, also in the province of Guanacaste after being alerted by tourists that their car was robbed. After the "intense" chase, police detained the car and arrested three male suspects in the robbery by the last names Morales, Zúñiga and Prieto. After receiving the alert,...

Costa Rica's National Coast Guard officers rescued this morning an American family drifting in a kayak in Pacific waters near Penca Island, in the northern jurisdiction of Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, near the Nicaraguan border. The four tourists, two adult males and two young girls, headed out in a sail kayak to enjoy the beauties of this coastal area, but didn't count on a sudden change in weather...

Spanish national police dismantled the largest international child pornography distribution network to date though pioneering research examining instant messaging groups and WhatsApp messages. The operation monitored 135 users in 18 countries in Europe, Central America and South America who participated in some 96 online pedophile groups. A total of 39 people have been arrested: 17 of them i...

The Second Judicial Circuit’s Criminal Court has set a September date for the trial of four doctors from Costa Rica’s public health system and a man of Greek origin for allegedly contacting poor people to illegally extract their organs, reported national Costa Rican media today. The Public Security Ministry, who made the accusation against the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) doctors a...

After Colorado native Cody Oser was found dead in a creek earlier this month near his Peace Corps site in northern Panama, local residents and Peace Corps members have rallied to pay tribute to the young idealist. His death has been determined accidental. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela said at a memorial service held at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on Wednesday, April 12...

Costa Rica hasn’t invested in its prison system since 1999, not for a lack of prisoners though. Overcrowding in Costa Rica’s prisons, among other problems experienced by prisoners, have garnered negative attention for the country in human rights reports in recent years. The Minister of Justice and Peace Cecilia Sánchez said last week that a new approach is being taken to the penitentiary system...

The Boston Globe detailed a report released yesterday on alleged cases of sexual abuse and assault on Choate Rosemary Hall students by former educators at the New England private boarding school over the past more than four decades. One of the cases detailed includes jaw-dropping allegations by a former female student whose story was confirmed by eyewitnesses about how her former Choate Spanish...

Costa Rica's National Coast Guard seized over one ton of cocaine being transported on a small-scale fishing boat in the country's Pacific, said police sources Monday. The operation was carried out on Monday when the Coast Guard intercepted the boat and detained its four crewmen 144 kilometers off the coast of Quepos, Puntarenas province, in Costa Rica's central Pacific. After inspecting the ...

Sunday, a teenage boy and his mother were brought in to the public prosecutor's office in Liberia, Guanacaste for questioning, said the judicial investigative police agency (OIJ). The youth is suspected of having raped his 14-year-old sister on three occasions between January and March of this year. The mother and son were arrested Sunday afternoon at the home of the two children and their m...

On April 3, a delegation from the Russian Federation's aerial landing troops arrived in Managua, Nicaragua to plan future joint military exercises with the country's government, said the digital Russia Beyond the Headlines (RBTH). The end date for the maneuvers is unknown, as the military says they need to study the situation. Experts say that the decision to hold military exercises in Nicaragu...

The body of U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama, Cody Oser, was found in a creek in the Comarca Ngäbe Bugle district in Northern Panama and identified on Sunday, April 9. The 24-year-old left his home town of Broomfield, Colorado for his Peace Corps tenure on July 5, 2016, according to posts on his Facebook page. He and 46 other volunteers in Panama were sworn in September 20, 2016 by U.S. Amb...

The Ministry of Public Security confirmed that 11 a.m. Saturday, while monitoring highways around Ciudad Colón, a town west of San José, officers found a large bag of synthetic drugs abandoned along the road, said Juan José Andrade, director of the national police force. They assume that whoever had been transporting the synthetic marijuana, called K2, threw it out to avoid being detected by po...

Police in Montes de Oca, otherwise known as San Pedro, the eastern San José district where the main University of Costa Rica campus is situated, responded to a call yesterday morning after witnesses saw a group of young men acting strangely outside of Venue Bar. The Public Security Ministry reported that police officers assisted 15 youth who were apparently under the influence of a strong drug....

In Cutris, San Carlos, near Costa Rica’s northern border with Nicaragua, police arrested several men for allegedly panning for gold and using dangerous chemicals, said the Ministry of Public Security yesterday. Police are now asking for assistance from environmental organizations and the local community to aid them in restoring the area by helping remove trash and debris left by the gold panner...

Yesterday, in the county of Nandayure, district of Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rican Coast Guard and Police officials intervened when a 25-year-old Swedish man named Andersson wielded a machete and seemed poised for an attack. Police believe he may have been under the effect of drugs, as neighbors recounted that the Swede, machete in hand, had been shouting that he was trying to kill some pigs he...

This year's road fatalities among motorcyclists are showing a worrying increase over previous years, with an average of 15 motorcyclists having lost their lives on the roads every month so far this year, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT). From January 1 - March 31, 2017, 54 of the 126 road deaths, or 43 percent, were among motorcyclists, said the MOPT. Note that only t...

In recent months, the Public Security Ministry has destroyed 450 arms which were decommissioned by state agencies who are decreasing their use of armed guards, said Roberto Méndez, head of the private security bureau within the ministry, in a phone interview As the ministry takes steps to comply with international arms control mechanisms, they are also looking for ways in encourage alternative ...

In the early morning house of  Saturday, April 1, a couple signed into a hotel in downtown San José. Only one of them left alive. Some people in the hotel noted that the man left the hotel about a half an hour after the couple had gone up to the room, but the woman failed to come out of the room for many hours. Hotel staff were alerted to the suspicious scenario. Hotel staff entered the room...

Faithful to its mission to assist those who require help at sea, the Costa Rican Coast Guard on Friday came to the aid of an American sailboat with mechanical problems in Panamanian waters near the Costa Rican border, reported the Public Security Ministry today. Officers stationed at the Golfito Coast Guard station who were patrolling with the  SNG 82-3 patrol boat, the Juan Rafael Mora, travel...

Last year, Costa Rican police detained an Ecuadorian boat 100 kms off the coast of Golfito in Costa Rica's southern Pacific. The boat was found to be manned by two Ecuadorian and one Colombian in addition to over a half ton of cocaine. Costa Rican Coast Guard official were alerted to the suspicious boat by Colombian officials. The three were sentenced this month by the Golfito Criminal Court...

By late yesterday afternoon, Costa Rica’s Drug Control Police (known as the PCD, in Spanish) had finished counting the cash hidden in a truck attempting to enter into Costa Rica over the northern Peñas Blancas border with Nicaragua. A whopping US$310,380 was found stacked in 12 neatly wrapped packages, and meticulously placed under the front passenger’s seat in part of the air conditioning syst...

The U.S. State Department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report came out this month. In the Money Laundering and Financial Crimes section, the report's second volume, Costa Rica is noted as being a favorable base for, "transnational criminal organizations to commit financial crimes due to its location and limited enforcement capability.” The report acknowledges that despite t...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced the creation of a commission to seek solutions to the increase in deaths from addiction to heroin and opiates, a situation he called a "total epidemic" and one of the "biggest problems" that the US has at present. "This is a total epidemic and I think it's probably, almost un-talked about compared to the severity that we're witnessing," said Trump a...

The Costa Rican Judiciary sent out a message yesterday mourning the death of another woman at the hands of her partner. The Observatory on Gender Violence Against Women and Access to Justice is a relatively new judicial agency dedicated to tracking violence against women, making legal and court services available to women who are victims of violence, and to observing the judiciary’s response to...