In the central town of San José, the Municipal Police found 74 commercial stores that would apparently offer sexual services.
This investigation was the result of a work conducted between the Municipal Police and criminology students.
Most establishments operated under different trade licenses, which made it difficult to track irregularities.
One of the most used and recognized figures were the ‘massage rooms’ or ‘hostels’ that turned into ‘massage rooms’.
According to Marcelo Solano, director of the Municipal Police of San José, authorities found 74 facilities that offered sex as main business. In addition, he declared that such properties included hostels, massage rooms, Internet cafes and video projection clubs. They turned into dating houses, brothels and sexual hostels.
Last year, the police started a series of constant operations to locate these establishments.
This situation contrasts with the capital city’s interest to reactivate trade and housing projects in the central town.
Some of these places even work with a catalog. They have permanent clients and they operate under anonymity.
Last week two cases came to light: a Colombian man was arrested under suspition of operating a hostel for sexual purposes and an American, known as ‘Cuba Dave’, was sentenced.
The latter was investigated for promoting Costa Rica, on social networks and the Internet, as a sex-tourism destination. To this end, he published pictures of bars or establishments where these services were apparently offered.