A gang consisting of three men suspected of committing at least 13 kidnappings in the Costa Rican Pacific was finally stopped on Monday morning.
The criminal structure was dismantled after four raids that were carried out in Sabalito de Coto Brus, Quepos and Heredia. There the suspects named Ulate Vargas, Alcázar Alfaro and Zamora Quesada, were arrested.
According to Walter Espinoza, director of the Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ), the subjects are credited with the death of Sixto Zapata Pizarro, a fisherman who was kidnapped and killed with high signs of torture on December 5th 2017.
The victim, 60, was found lifeless with four shots, burns made with hot metal, and cuts in his hands. The subjects would have intercepted him three days earlier, when he was in a local bar. Soon after, the family began to receive extortion calls with demands for 125 million in exchange for the victim’s release. After a negotiation, Zapata’s family paid five million colones but the man was killed.