Nine months have passed since Canadian expat Ryan Piercy was kidnapped in Costa Rica, and authorities here appear no closer to solving the case despite assurances this week from detectives that they are aggressively pursuing all leads.
In March, the government passed an anti-extortion law that, among other measures, forbids companies from supplying cellphone signals near jails. Under the new law, a phone company who breaks the law is subject to a fine of $753,000 per day of continued infraction.
Authorities suspect that the March 14 murder of Giovanni Villatoro, 20, a cameraman with the Intercable news station, occurred because his company refused to pay extortion money.
