Interpol

Thirteen of the most wanted fugitives in Latin America were arrested in an operation coordinated by Interpol.

Undocumented migrants claimed to have been threatened with death or rape if they did not agree to pay the groups of smugglers.

The operation involved police, customs, immigration and military agents from Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Panama.

The OIJ reported that U.S. officials filed extradition requests for all the suspects in order to take them to North Carolina.

Youssef Khater's checkered past reads like something out of a novel. His story took another turn Tuesday when Costa Rican police arrested him in Puerto Viejo.

Costa Rican authorities said they wanted to extradite Saatio "as soon as possible" to prevent any further attempts at escape.

U.S. fugitive John Saatio escaped from an immigration detention center in Hatillo on Sunday night after being arrested in Jacó earlier this month.

When police apprehended him in Jacó, Saatio resisted arrest and tried unsuccessfully to escape custody again, according to police.

PITAL DE SAN CARLOS, Alajuela – A yucca packing company in the northern Costa Rican community of La Tabla de Pital de San Carlos and a pineapple processor in Chilamate de Sarapiquí were fronts for the Italian mafia to traffic cocaine to the United States and Europe, Costa Rican authorities announced Wednesday following several morning raids.

Paul Watson is fed up with Costa Rica’s attempts to prosecute him. For 13 years, this tiny Central American country that promotes itself as a model of environmental responsibility has tried to put the bushy-haired marine conservationist in jail over an incident that occurred in 2002 in Guatemalan waters.