Costa Rica organized crime

After several years of decreasing or stable homicide rates, the number of killings in Costa Rica spiked in 2015, leading law enforcement officials to call for more aggressive prevention, investigation and prosecution of organized crime.

Walter Espinoza, a 47-year-old prosecutor, steps into the position as OIJ chief at a time when Costa Rica struggles with killings tied to organized crime.

The execution in the middle of rush-hour traffic was the latest suspected narco-related killing as the government searches for a strategy to tackle organized crime here.

“I want to once more ratify Costa Rica’s opinion in the sense that those ills — organized crime, terrorism — must be fought off in all ways possible by the international community,” the president said.

OIJ official: “Victims are being tortured or mutilated, and most of these crimes occur in the streets. Previously we had information of at least six organized groups operating in Desamparados, but our intelligence now says that these gangs have merged into two major groups that are disputing control of the area.”

Agents of Costa Rica's Drug Control Police on Tuesday morning arrested nine suspects accused of belonging to a criminal organization dedicated to smuggling drugs into Europe.

In 24 simultaneous raids early Saturday morning in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, Judicial Investigation Police took down a well-coordinated international human smuggling ring that operated in both Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Police had known about the criminal network for 10 years.