Costa Rican prosecutors have asked a court to dismiss their investigation into possible child sexual abuse linked to mentions of Costa Rica in the Jeffrey Epstein files, after finding no Costa Rican victims and no evidence that any crime took place here. The gender crimes unit of the Public Prosecutor’s Office filed the request with the Criminal Court of San José, which must now decide whether to close the case. The investigation was opened in February on the instructions of Attorney General Carlo DÃaz.
Prosecutors worked on the case with the gender violence section of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) and with international agencies, including the FBI, according to the request. Investigators were unable to identify any Costa Rican minors among the victims of Epstein’s network. They also could not establish that the criminal conduct occurred in Costa Rica,or link any specific person to an offense under Costa Rican jurisdiction.
The police report found multiple references to Costa Rica in the files released by the US Department of Justice, but no specific information or objective evidence to support the theory that prompted the case. Prosecutors described the investigation as having started from a generic suspicion based on press reports that could not be corroborated with material evidence.
The case was filed against unknown persons and no suspect was ever named. When it opened, the attorney general said media reports had placed Costa Rica among the possible countries where such crimes were committed. He also noted that a 2019 legal reform could keep older cases from expiring, since victims can now file complaints up to 25 years after reaching adulthood.
Costa Rica appears hundreds of times in the Epstein files, across emails, phone records and court documents. Many of those references involve child sex tourism, including records from an FBI undercover operation that used a fake travel agency called Costa Rica Taboo Vacations.
Other references concern trips to Costa Rica by people in Epstein’s circle, including his former partner Ghislaine Maxwell. The court has not yet ruled on the request to dismiss the case.
