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.
A garden hose nozzle is admittedly an outlier when it comes to weapons in aggravated robbery, but the capital’s criminals are increasingly turning to toy guns — or anything short of an actual firearm — when they want to rob someone. The guns might be fake but that doesn’t meant that the sentences are any less.
Four French tourists were robbed and sexually assaulted by armed men wearing masks north of Santa Teresa last week when they stopped at a river to see if it was safe to drive across, police and area residents said.
During a late June visit to Costa Rica, a pair of U.S. tourists fell victim to an ongoing scam where thieves targets tourists by flattening the tires of their rental cars and then offering to "help."
Olger Ulate Ulate, 55, a Costa Rican man arrested in Brazil last week for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old transvestite prostitute, was released with preventive measures the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry confirmed. Brazilian police did not say when Ulate was released.
