A Costa Rican woman identified by her last names Trinidad Valdez was arrested suspected of illegally bringing to Costa Rica young Dominican women, who were apparently victims of sexual exploitation in a bar in Esparza, Puntarenas.
Immigration Police reported that the arrest took place Friday afternoon in San Ramón de Alajuela, when the woman was traveling on public roads with her sentimental partner, a man named Rodríguez Carvajal, who is an officer of the Fuerza Publica (National Police), who is now also being investigated for the same crimes.
Stephen Madden, deputy director of the immigration police, said that the investigation made it possible to determine that Trinidad had a bar in Esparza, which she used to exploit her victims, which she brought to Costa Rica illegally, traveling from the Dominican Republic first to Nicaragua and then cross the land border into Costa Rica with the assistance of ‘coyotes’ (people who assist in crossing the land border illegally) to Liberia, Guanacaste.
Precedent
In August of this year, a mother and daughter were sentenced to 24 years on three counts of trafficking in persons (trata de personas in Spanish) for sexual exploitation and personal favoritism.
According to the court report, the women were identified as Delia María Martínez Laínez (mother) and Francisca Graciela Murillo Martínez (daughter).
A Fuerza Publica official identified as Eliécer Pérez Noguera was also sentenced to 24 years for providing information to the women, namely warning them of any police action against them. A fourth suspect was acquitted.
