For the next six months, OIJ chief Solano and another suspect must sign in with the prosecutor’s office every 15 days, stay away from witnesses and victims, not interfere with the investigation, and maintain their current residence.
Debate over the need for specialized judges and courts to review drug trafficking cases followed the arrest of a prominent judge in the Caribbean province of Limón, Judge Rosa Elena Gamboa, in May 2014.
Brian Lynn Hogue, 64, disappeared while driving from San José to Guápiles, where he lives on a farm with his wife, Susan, and their son, according to a statement from his family. He was planning to return to the United States this week to attend his daughter’s wedding before he went missing.
Costa Rica's Chief Public Prosecutor Jorge Chavarría has confirmed the arrest on Wednesday of the head of the Judicial Investigation Police, or OIJ, in the central Pacific town of Quepos. The OIJ boss, surnamed Solano, is accused of illegally detaining three North Americans, whose names have not yet been released, in an apparent land dispute with an alleged drug trafficker.
Call centers are one of the fastest growing sectors of the Costa Rican economy, but this boom industry has a dark side. Costa Rica was home to a massive telemarketing scam that defrauded thousands of U.S. citizens — most over the age of 55 — of upwards of $20 million. Prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina have convicted 46 defendants from the United States related to the sweepstakes fraud to date.
Complaints against the facility included inappropriate use of tranquilizers and residents being tied down to beds or wheelchairs with improvised restraints.
The missing U.S. man was swimming on Jacó’s main beach Sunday when a riptide pulled him out to sea, according to Red Cross spokesman Freddy Roman. The body was spotted more than 2 miles out to sea by a Aerial Vigilance Service search-and-rescue flight Friday morning.
Three of Robert Stewart's acquaintences told police that the missing man had been acting strangely in recent days, had stopped taking his prescription medication and voiced his intention to commit suicide.
