There’s nothing better than a day at the beach. The sun, the surf … what could be more fun? Especially in Costa Rica, where the sun, sand and sea are warm all the time! Long beaches of gold, rich black, pearly white, beige and even pink sand, fringed with palm trees and other greenery – Costa Rica’s beaches are paradise! It seems like every surfer who visits Costa Rica agrees it is one of the b...

If it was 25 years ago, you wouldn’t want to go to San Lucas Island. The small, forested island in the middle of Costa Rica’s Nicoya Gulf was the roughest jail in the country. Being sent to San Lucas Island was a terrible prospect; prisoners’ lives were short and often spent in torture. Thankfully, today, the prisoners are gone and San Lucas Island has been transformed into a national wildlife ...

Renting hotels and low interest loans to entrepreneurs with financial problems, have joined other traditional forms of money laundering. The latest news from the U.S. State Department on the subject, shows that profits from trafficking in cocaine and other drugs, internet gambling, financial fraud, human trafficking, corruption and smuggling, are the sources of the assets that are "cleaned" in ...

The Samara Chamber of Tourism recently issued an advisory cautioning people to keep their valuables with them in the bus at all times and not to use the overhead bins because of recent thefts. “The thefts are perpetrated by people who get on the bus posing as helpers, offering to stow items in the overhead bins. They disappear with the bags before the bus has left town,” according to the advis...

The Perez Zeledon Court dropped its charges and absolved Ann Maxine Patton, who was suspected of murdering her husband, yesterday afternoon. After deciding it had insufficient evidence to convict her, the court set Patton free, and dismissed the charges against her. Patton, since her husband’s death, has always maintained her version of the events, stating her husband, John Felix Bender, had co...

Prosecutors and the District Attorney are asking for a 25-year prison sentence for U.S. citizen, Ann Maxine Patton, accused of killing husband, John Felix Bender in 2010 in the couple’s home located in Florida de Baru, Perez Zeledon. Since his death, Patton has continuously insisted that her husband’s death was a suicide gone wrong. Yesterday, during closing arguments, and based on expert te...

The defense of U.S. citizen, Ann Maxine Patton, on trial since Monday in Costa Rica on charges of murdering her husband, John Felix Bender, received a serious blow as a forensic doctor “ruled out,” the chance that her husband committed suicide. Bender died from a gunshot wound to the head. In her initial testimony on Monday, Patton stated that she did not murder her husband, but rather that Ben...

The trial of Ann Maxine Patton, 42, began in Costa Rica on Monday. The U.S. woman is facing first-degree murder charges stemming from the death of her husband, John Felix Bender. Prosecutors say the woman shot her husband in the head. The alleged murder occurred in January 2010, on the 4th floor of the couple’s mansion, located on a 5,000-acre estate in Baru, Perez Zeledon, in Costa Rica. The P...

During the first 15 days of November, the beginning of tourist season, the tourist police reported an increase in the number of crimes against property. At the same time, Jeison Vargas, tourist police chief in Guiones, assured that this is what the tourist police are here for and that they are visiting the area businesses every day. The police advise taking necessary precautions to ensure that ...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has reported on a campaign to end dog fighting in Costa Rica. Costa Rican authorities detected the illegal import of genetically modified dogs for use in fights, reported local media yesterday. According to the National Animal Health Service (SENASA), this is the first time they seize these hybrid dogs used for profit, since of the 23 seized, 11 were aggre...

Over the past few years, the local media has tried to pin the Costa Rican prostitution and pedophilia problems on foreigners and the local politicians have branded these foreigners as sex tourists. Now, these same politicians are trying to pass a new law that will penalize anyone who describes Costa Rica as a sex tourism destination online or in any advertising campaigns. Furthermore, the new ...

Fifteen Panamanian truckers claimed they were assaulted while driving in Costa Rica from January through August, five more than all of 2011, according to the Panamanian National Cargo Transportation Chamber (CANATRACA). The most recent case involved Nicolás Araúz, a father of four who was shot twice in the head by unknown gunmen on Costa Rica’s Peñas Blancas highway while transporting a tru...

A group of suspected cash smugglers posing as journalists who were arrested last week reportedly traveled from Honduras to Nicaragua on several occasions since 2010, prompting an investigation into why Honduran and Nicaraguan authorities failed to apprehend the group. According to a report by El Nuevo Diario, the 18 people arrested in Nicaragua while posing as reporters crossed into Nicarag...

Five months into a historic ceasefire between El Salvador's street gangs, Investigators profile the complex history of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). While the MS-13 is more commonly associated with menacing tattoos and violent initiation ceremonies,  Investigation into the gang's history shows that this was not always the case. When starting out at the bottom of the food chain in ...

A man accused of helping a Colombian drug gang smuggle tons of heroin and cocaine through Panama on its way to the U.S. has been extradited to face charges in New York. Andres Cajiao-Barberena is accused of operating a warehouse where boatloads of narcotics were stored after arriving from Colombia by sea. The drugs were then hidden inside heavy construction machinery and sent to Mexico, whe...

FLINT, MI -- A Flushing couple is out on bond after the federal government claims that they purposely hid profits from millions in foreign investments from tax officials, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court. James Stanley Gray, 80, and Karen Amerling-Gray, 67, are accused of purposely failing to claim their foreign bank accounts that were funded by profits from the million...

A pastor accused of using his position to extort and rob people on behalf of the FARC was arrested with three men in western Colombia Tuesday. Wilson Enrique Gaitan, leader of the pentecoastal church "World Missionary Movement," is accused of heading the criminal gang "Pastors of Costa Rica," which tricked people out of money that was then passed to Colombia's biggest guerrilla group. Gaitai...

Source: National Museum of Costa Rica The recent arrest of a group of suspects caught looting an archeological site and the finding of a new stone sphere illustrate the fact that Costa Rica is a nation that still possesses a rich heritage of material remains left by ancient cultures, and her treasures must be protected. Suspected Huaqueros Caught Extracting Artifacts The nefarious work of huaq...

One of Latin America’s most notorious drug cartels, Los Charros, have been using Costa Rica as a bridge for drug transportation. In San José, Costa Rica’s capitol city, members of Los Charros collect cocaine that is brought into the country through as of yet unidentified methods and transfer the drugs north. The drug cartel normally runs cocaine from Costa Rica up to Nicaragua. Then, in convoys...

(Updated April 5, 2020) I‘ve been exposed to many types of security systems from building custom homes for discerning clients during the past 30 years and I’ve designed and installed a multitude of security systems, safes and safe rooms into the walls and floors of dwellings. Most of my clients have wanted various types of security devices and personal protection installations for their homes an...

Hugo Jose Sanchez thought he had it all figured out. The 57-year old man from the United Kingdom planned to establish a business in the burgeoning 3G computer graphic imaging (CGI) and animation industry in Costa Rica. Working as a web developer for music retailer HMV was not cutting it, and he longed for the success of companies such as the Morpho animation studio in San Jose. Perhaps he thought ...

American Stafford Costa Rica, in conjunction with the National Service of Animal Health and Service (SENASA in Spanish) represented by regional director Allan Sanchez, recently announced the first seizure of dogs used in illegal fights. The director of AmStaff Costa Rica, Joana R, issued the following statement: “It is a continuous struggle, and we will not give up until there is a law that p...

The thoughts and writings below are those of Don Freeman at the International Whale Protection Organization, and we thank him for his time and contributions here on The Costa Rica Star. You can click here to read a previous article contribution of his or click here to read previous articles published about Paul Watson. The President of Costa Rica has openly declared that activist Paul Watson wi...

A would-be trafficker of religious effigies in Costa Rica is now behind bars thanks to the quick reaction of Fuerza Publica officers. Earlier this week, a man broke the sanctity of a Catholic church in Ciudad Colon and made off with an effigy of the Holy Virgin of the Ascension. The sacrilegious thief, who at the time probably did not fear heavenly wrath, ran away from the house of worship ...

The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs announced yesterday that a high-level government official returned six pre-Columbian artifacts to Ambassador Carlos Bonilla Sandoval for repatriation to Costa Rica. According to an official release by France Diplomatie,  Jean-Paul Balzamo made the return of six ceramic and pottery objects, some made into human and animal shapes. The Agence Fra...

When the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica passed a resolution approving the creation of a web site that published the mug shots and personal information of dozens of fugitives from justice, the host server crashed. The few Ticos who were able to browse the new site immediately went to the online version of national newspaper La Nacion and weighed in with their opinions: "It doe...

The men and women of the Tourism Police special unit of Fuerza Publica are sometimes called "Baywatch Cops" by their partners in blue. This is a playful tease that comes from the fact that Tourism Police officers are often seen patrolling on bicycles and jovially interacting with backpackers looking for the next bus to La Fortuna, or surfers whose belongings left on the beach disappear. What ma...

In Puerto Jimenez near Golfito this weekend, an alleged poacher traveling in a quadracyle all-terrain vehicle (ATV) was stopped by Fuerza Publica officers on route 245. The driver of the ATV was clumsily attempting to conceal two tepezcuintles (pacas) in plastic shopping bags. The two wild Cuniculus paca specimens were killed by a firearm, which the officers found stored in a rear compartment of t...

Dumping of agrochemical pesticides and herbicides in the waters of two rivers in Costa Rica this week is suspected to be behind massive slaughters of aquatic life. A number of news media outlets have reported the events, and Fuerza Publica investigators are looking for those responsible. Dead Fish in San Pedro Creek The municipality of San Carlos, one of Costa Rica's most important agricultu...

These days, with all the governmental turmoil in Costa Rica, some expats and others who want to retire in this part of the world are beginning to take a closer look at Nicaragua and Panama as possibilities, many focusing on the comparative crime rates as a major criterion in their choice. Nicaragua in particular is being promoted as the future “next Costa Rica” because of its supposedly lower crim...

With a ceremony that took place at the esplanade of the Costa Rica Art Museum at La Sabana, representatives from the People's Republic of China (PRC) donated 50 new patrol cars to the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT in Spanish). These patrol cars will be placed at the service of Transit Police operations. President Laura Chinchilla was present at the event, as well as top off...

On Wednesday morning, Daniel Calderon was at the Costa Rica Art Museum in La Sabana. Earlier this week, he was at the Central Park in Heredia and later at the Eladio Rosabal Cordero Stadium. In the meantime, he posted a flurry of updates to his Twitter account: In the Guarari Sector, 4 known robbers were captured in Zone 2; two of them in fraganti and the other two with outstanding warrants ...

The Costa Rica Star has recently published information about receiving your permanent residency in Costa Rica to avoid border runs, wasting time, and money. Author's Note: This article is being written in response to a dear reader named Jane, who is from the United States and is planning on moving to the town of Puerto Viejo in the Talamanca Region, province of Limon. Parts of her e-mail to the...

Australian-born actor and filmmaker Mel Gibson, whose palatial Hacienda Dorada in Nicoya was recently listed for sale, is once again making the rounds of the tabloid and celebrity gossip media. The issue this time involves a falling out between him and Hollywood screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, whose writing credits include blockbuster films like Flashdance and Basic Instinct -as well as critically...

Roger Soto Zotela, a 35-year Costa Rican citizen, was shot and killed by an undercover agent of Panama's Direction of Judicial Investigations (Spanish acronym: DIJ) last Wednesday, according to news sources in that country. Newspaper El Siglo reported that undercover policemen from the Chiriqui region of Panama were conducting a sting operation in the border region of Paso Canoas when Mr. S...

Three years ago, the National Tourism Board (Spanish acronym: ICT) launched an initiative to provide clear warnings to foreign and domestic tourists about certain risks they may face during their relaxing or adventurous activities in Costa Rica. The initiative called for a closer involvement by Fuerza Publica in looking after the safety of visitors to our country. The first stage of the project c...

While most Ticos take time off during Easter Week to relax and observe the religious holidays, members of Fuerza Publica will be busy making sure that order and safety prevail in Costa Rica. The official press release of Fuerza Publica for Easter Week gives an overview of its planned operations: 3,861 officers will be on duty nationwide 6 patrol aircraft will be used 315 patrol cars...

*IMPORTANT* Click here to follow the discussion about this article on our Facebook page. I was forwarded this video earlier tonight, and felt compelled to write a quick article about it. You should watch the video before carrying on reading this, click the link, it will open in a new window. Then come back here once you are done. It shows a frustrated and mad individual attacking 2 surfers w...