File Photo An armed man was shot dead by Tourism Police officers in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica after a foot pursuit in a mountainous forest. According to a report by Evelin Andino Espinoza of daily tabloid Diario Extra, Tourism Police officers assigned to Punta Uva of Manzanillo, province of Limon, were in pursuit of various armed suspects when one of them suddenly fired multiple times...

Source: Fuerza Publica Along with Puntarenas and Limon, Guanacaste is a province in Costa Rica that is known to attract many revelers for New Year’s Eve celebrations. These provinces also happen to be hotspots of disorderly activity and domestic violence that transpire during the festivities, particularly after 10:00 pm on December 31st. For this reason, officers from Fuerza Publica, the natio...

On November 16, 2014, Gregory David Fischer, the 40-year old boyfriend of Ann Patton Bender, was found dead in his bed in Escazu, Costa Rica. According to his brother, Brian Fischer, “He was found lying peacefully in his bed with his puppy at his side.” Authorities have ruled out foul play in his untimely death. A heart or asthma attack is the suspected cause of death, according to authorities....

Source: Fuerza Publica One of the most forgettable films of the 1980s is Weekend at Bernie’s, a dark comedy involving a convoluted plot whereby two insurance analysts attempt to conceal the death of their boss by parading his dead body around in slapstick situations, including passing him off as a live passenger in a vehicle. A similar situation was encountered by members of Fuerza Publica, Co...

Earlier this week, the Caribbean Port of Limon was the temporary home of Patrouillevaartuig Zr. Ms. Holland (P840), a magnificent patrol boat in the service of the Coast Guard of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This vessel's visit to Costa Rica was carried out in support of the ratification of a treaty that creates a Joint Patrol Agreement between our country, the Netherlands, and other nations th...

A physician evaluating the condition of Evgeny Otto, an imprisoned Russian man in Costa Rica who started a hunger strike in mid-October, explained that the inmate was at a point of no return with regard to his health. As reported by online news daily CRHoy.com a few days ago, Mr. Otto was resolute on consuming nothing but water as he pushed for a resolution to his Kafkaesque status in Costa Rica. ...

A “grey hat” website hosted in Russia is making a strong statement about a security flaw that is often “exploited” due to a very common user error. This site has been widely reported by several news media outlets in the last few days, including online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, which published screenshots of surveillance video at a known shopping center in Ezcazu, a factory in Paquera, and a secti...

Red Cross rescuers and paramedics from the Fire Department in La Aurora, province of Heredia, responded to an emergency call involving a baby who was viciously attacked by an American Staffordshire terrier. According to reporter Lady Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, the infant was rushed to the Saint Vincent Paul Hospital, which is operated by La Caja, the national public health service....

The Paniamor (Bread & Love) Foundation in Costa Rica is a non-governmental organization that seeks to reaffirm and enforce the rights of children in our country; particularly with regard to preventing violence and sexual abuse. A strong focus of the Paniamor Foundation is on the prevention of child trafficking and sexual tourism. In recent years, Paniamor’s Executive Director Milena Grillo has...

At the 13th edition of the National Journalism Awards in Mexico, a special investigative report about drug trafficking in the Latin American nations of Costa Rica, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela was given special recognition. The special report was published on the Sunday pages of the esteemed Mexican newspaper El Universal, and it received accolades for the accuracy of its sources,...

Faced with a growing population and increased criminality in Costa Rica, the Ministry of Public Safety has been working on modernizing their police operations. Donations of squad cars by China, forensic ballistic systems by Canada, aircraft acquisitions, new equipment for the National Coast Guard Service, a cybercrime center, electronic fingerprinting databases, and more. Amidst all these attempts...

Source: Fuerza Publica A 33-year old man who powered his motorcycle through a law enforcement roadblock in municipality of Grecia was found in possession of counterfeit United States dollar bills totaling $4,600. Officers assigned to the Fuerza Publica (Costa Rica’s national police force) detachment in Grecia stopped the suspect after he attempted to evade a security checkpoint set up on a mai...

Earlier this morning, a Russian man naturalized as a Costa Rican citizen was arrested by Fuerza Publica (Costa Rica's national police force) for allegedly perpetrating a mass shooting, whch resulted in a series of missed shot with the exception of a woman who was shot in the leg. The incident occurred in Barrio Cordoba in San Jose, near the Centro Comercial del Sur shopping plaza.   Acc...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Dozens of United States citizens and former expatriates have been charged with different criminal offenses for their alleged participation in telemarketing schemes based in Costa Rica. Most of the case are being handled in the Western District of North Carolina. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, some individuals are being indicted while others are enterin...

The Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) is currently in hot water for their alleged illegal espionage on star goalkeeper Keylor Navas, but there is yet another case winding through the courts that is casting this law enforcement agency, which has considerable power in Costa Rica, in a negative light. In this criminal case, four OIJ agents by the last names of Quesada, Luna...

Illustrative purposes only. Source: Wikimedia Commons. The following information is being provided by the Office of Public Affairs of the United States Department of Justice:   Two Individuals Charged, Third Pleads Guilty For Roles In Costa Rican Telemarketing Schemes Targeting U.S. Residents   A California woman pleaded guilty today for her role in a half-million-dollar “swe...

Source: Coast Guard Earlier this week, officers from the National Coast Guard Service of Costa Rica boarded a fishing vessel in the Bay of Quepos and found various shark carcasses that had been caught for the sole purpose of hacking off their fins. According to a press release by the Ministry of Public Security, the boarding took place when the suspected shark fin poachers least expected it: A...

Source: Fuerza Publica Escalating violence has marred an ongoing strike by dock workers in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica, and the latest reports from Fuerza Publica, the national police force, indicate that criminal instigators have fired AK-47s and semiautomatic pistols at officers from riot control units. Such was the report filed by Pablo Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy earli...

A well-behaved La Doce displays fan devotion Since the early afternoon of Thursday, October 23rd, the national police force of Costa Rica kept watch outside the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in the suburbs of San Jose. Mounted police and special units of Fuerza Publica assembled hours before the match between the Deportivo Saprissa and the Sporting Kansas City, the latter of the United States Major...

Dr. Alejandro Ayon Lacayo, Director of the Centro Internacional de Medicina (CIMA), was detained at the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) in Alajuela earlier this morning. According to a report by Lady Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, Dr. Ayon was taken into custody by Airport Police officers from Air Surveillance, a special unit of Fuerza Publica, Costa Rica's national police ...

Even though statistics and public opinion surveys indicate that the administration of former President Laura Chinchilla was able to make good on the campaign promise of a safer Costa Rica, uncomfortable news reports about crimes against persons and property are prompting both Ticos and expats in Guanacaste and other affluent parts of the country to weigh their options with regard to firearms. G...

Silk Road screenshot before seizure. Silk Road. Bitcoin. Liberty Reserve. Ross Ulbricht. Arthur Budovsky. These are the respective names of an alleged online drug marketplace, two virtual currencies and two individuals accused by the United States Justice Department of leading major cybercrime operations. The arrests of these two men were heralded by U.S. prosecutors as significant crackdowns ...

From drugs to oil and from the iPhone 6 to jade and timber, smuggling in China is a thriving business that generates billions of dollars each year. Perpetrators of these economic crimes must somehow launder their illicit profits, and smuggling currency out of China seems to be their preferred method. Macau, a former Portuguese colony that now operates as an autonomous region of China, is one of...

For many years, residents, business owners and tourists in the Manuel Antonio community of Quepos have complained about an increase in street-level crimes. From drug dealing to pick pocketing and from vehicle theft to illegal sidewalk sales, street crime has grown on the beach and extended into the pristine Manuel Antonio National Park, one of Costa Rica’s most visited natural attractions. Various...

American citizen, Ann Patton Bender, who was accused of murdering her husband, John Felix Bender, in Costa Rica in 2010, has been moved out of the ICU, and into the women’s prison, El Buen Pastor, located in San Rafael Arriba de Desamparados, in San Jose. Ms. Bender has been sentenced to 22 years for first-degree murder, following an initial acquittal of the charges in January 2013, of killing ...

  Source: Fuerza Publica Police officers assigned to an extended security detail in the Caribbean province of Limon over the weekend arrested one of their own after a spectacular car chase that left three patrol cars damaged. Witnesses of the incident, which took place in Guápiles, explained that the events unfolded in a way reminiscent of a film directed by Michael Bay.   I...

Source: Flickr Commons Security is a major concern for the million-plus international visitors who arrive in Costa Rica every year as well as for the hundreds of thousands of expatriates who have chosen this country as their new home. This being the case, tourists and expats will probably be surprised to learn that the 2013 Gallup Law and Order Index puts Nicaragua and Panama as the safest nat...

Fuerza Publica, the national police force of Costa Rica, recently reported the arrest of two suspected smugglers on the border with Panama. The men were driving separate cars, but they appeared to be working together in an effort to illicitly introduce 240 bottles and cans of beer to Costa Rica. Of special note within the nefarious cargo: Seven cases of Milwaukee's Best Premium, proudly manufa...

What if you heard a tale of a mysterious murder/suicide in an 30,000-square foot glass mansion, with 550 Tiffany lamps, 3,000 loose rubies, diamonds, and sapphires, a helipad, and a moat separating it from one of the world’s most rugged jungles – would you think this was a movie script, or the plotline of a pulp fiction novel? It happens to all be true, and it happens to have taken place in Per...

Ann Maxine Patton, the U.S. woman who was accused of killing her wealthy husband, John Felix Bender while he slept in their sprawling estate in Baru, Perez Zeledon in 2010, was found guilty of murder yesterday after a retrial and sentenced to 22 years in prison. The judgment was handed down at 3:20 p.m. yesterday by the criminal court in Perez Zeledon after a nearly two-week long retrial. The s...

Source: Red Cross Costa Rica The days between Palm and Easter Sundays are often the busiest of the year for Red Cross rescue brigades in Costa Rica. That is when thousands of people will leave their homes and head to the mountains, the beaches and the countryside. To this end, the Red Cross has deployed 1,200 rescuers in strategic locations during Holy Week, and one particular emergency they w...

Seized beasts. Source: Fuerza Publica Three cows stuffed inside a passenger vehicle, two cases of Old Milwaukee and one of Milwaukee's Best are among the unusual items that police officers assigned to guard the land borders of Costa Rica have confiscated in recent days. These attempted smuggled goods join a long list of peculiar items destined for the versatile and burgeoning black market in C...

Source: MSP Flickr Officers of the National Coast Guard Service in Costa Rica literally gave the shirts off their backs to stop sinking of evidence by four Colombian men charged with cocaine smuggling. According to a press release by the Ministry of Public Security (Spanish initials: MSP), the suspects tried to scuttle a 42 foot powerboat with 100 kilos of cocaine by removing special drain plu...

Source: Flickr CC Over the last few years, law enforcement agencies in Costa Rica have noticed a sharp increase in the number of women who become involved in drug trafficking. The Drug Control Police (Spanish initials: PCD) reported the arrest of two women found to be in possession of cocaine hydrochloride and byproducts. Both women were detained at ports of entry and exit; for this reason, PC...

Source: Facebook The crude photograph of an adult jaguar lying dead on a pool of his own blood has caused indignation on social media circles in Costa Rica. The picture was posted on Facebook, allegedly by a young man who participated in the killing of the wild cat in Barra del Colorado, in the Caribbean province of Limon. Karla Baquero of online news daily CRHoy.com has been compiling comm...

GAO agents detain Karpjack 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 th...

A man suspected of stabbing his former employer to death after a disagreement is now in custody after he turned himself in at a police station in Carrillo, province of Guanacaste. The suspect, a fruit and vegetable peddler whose last name is Scott, was reportedly extremely angry after his demands for severance pay and aguinaldo (the mandatory holiday bonus in Costa Rica) fell on deaf ears. Mari...

Mounted police officers guard a beach in Costa Rica. If you are concerned about violent crime in Costa Rica, you may want to consider moving to the agricultural cantons of Hojancha and Nandayure in Guanacaste. Likewise, you may want to stay away from the central canton of Limon in the Caribbean region and the urban districts of San Jose. This information can be gleaned from the 10th Statistica...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons The announcements by Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto as well as by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reverberated around the world: Joaquin Guzman, the fugitive leader of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, was captured by Mexican naval infantry forces over the weekend. Thousands of news media outlets around the world broadcast the...

Agents from the Organization of Judicial Investigations of Costa Rica (Spanish initials: OIJ) have taken two persons into custody for their alleged participation in a narcotics distribution and retail scheme that catered to foreign visitors and expatriate residents in Guanacaste and Puntarenas. When the suspects were arrested in Liberia, they were found in possession of cocaine byproducts as well ...