The Judicial Investigation Police this week reported they have recorded 555 murders this year, just two less than the total number of homicides recorded in 2015. Crime figures last year prompted OIJ to declare 2015 as Costa Rica's most violent year in record.
Starting this June, police in Puerto Viejo, Cocles, Cahuita, Flamingo, Dominical, Nosara, Sámara, Playas del Coco, and Tamarindo will start taking criminal complaints, according to Public Security Ministry spokesman José Vargas.
Police say it is "very likely" that human remains found in Corcovado National Park belong to U.S. hiker Cody Dial, 27, who has been missing since 2014.
Costa Rican authorities are investigating the grisly slaying of five members of the same family, including three children, who were discovered Tuesday morning inside their home in the northern Pacific community of Matapalo, in Guanacaste province. Two other minors were injured.
National Police officers detained a truck near the Central Pacific town of Jacó early Wednesday carrying 51 undocumented migrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
