Costa Rica on Thursday dismantled a human trafficking network that operated for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and authorities detained 10 people who led the operation, the Migration Directorate reported.
"If you are thinking about visiting Costa Rica with the purpose of paying for sex with underage people you could stay in this place for years or forever since this is a felony under Costa Rica’s law,” warns a fake listing on Airbnb, posted by an anti-trafficking group.
Twelve-year-old Noemi Álvarez, from Ecuador, took her life at a shelter in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico in March 2014, several days after she was raped, allegedly by traffickers.
A Costa Rican woman on Friday was sentenced in a Florida court to 30 months in prison for her role in a conspiracy to smuggle more than 25 undocumented Cuban migrants to that country, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.
There are more laws on the book than ever in Latin America criminalizing human trafficking, but these laws rarely lead to prosecutions or convictions, according to a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Officers from the National Police Friday morning arrested nine undocumented men and the driver that transported them inside an SUV near the Central Pacific town of Jacó, the Public Security Ministry (MSP) reported.
Sexual and labor exploitation are the top two drivers of human trafficking in Costa Rica this year, but organ trafficking continues to concern authorities, according to Immigration Administration Director Kathya Rodriguez.
Scenic beaches and cold bottles of Imperial pervade Costa Rica’s image as a world-renowned tourist destination. But a darker side lurks behind the pura vida.
Public Security Ministry officers on Saturday arrested a Costa Rican man last names Ortega Villegas who was transporting 14 Nicaraguans without immigration documents inside a truck.
