Q COSTARICA — The San Isidro de Heredia Municipal Police, in the early hours of Tuesday, February, 10, arrested a man named Carvajal Fernández, who had been a fugitive, wanted as the hitman who murdered retired Nicaraguan Army Major Roberto Samcam on June 19, 2025, in Moravia, Costa Rica.
The acting director general of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), Michael Soto, confirmed that Carvajal Fernández “could be the person who carried out the homicide,” meaning the one who “fired the weapon” against Samcam. He also stated that this opens the possibility of investigating the masterminds behind the murder.
“To complete the arrest of all those involved in the operational aspects of this homicide, we were missing one man, whom we had been searching for for several months… This allows us to clarify, now to a significant degree, the issue of the perpetrators,” Soto said.
Man Arrested After Crashing into Ditch While Trying to Flee
The arrest occurred shortly after midnight during a routine patrol in an area near the San Isidro tollbooth, according to Reiner Corella Carazo, head of the local San Isidro Municipal Police, in statements to television news. Teletica.
“Around midnight, my colleagues were conducting a preventative patrol on a quiet street. They noticed two vehicles approaching; one managed to continue on, but the other, upon seeing the patrol car’s lights, attempted to flee in reverse and crashed into a ditch,” Corella recounted.
According to Costa Rican authorities, the officers followed established safety protocols.
“The officers, taking all necessary precautions, approached the vehicle and ordered the occupants, who were two men, to get out. At that moment, they observed that one of them was carrying a weapon in his waistband,” the police chief explained.
Subsequently, both individuals were detained, and a visual inspection of the vehicle revealed a long gun inside. Carvajal Fernández identified himself and told the local police officials that he was ‘wanted’. Later, in coordination with the Fuerza Publica and on the orders of the prosecutor in charge, the detainees were transferred to the Heredia Prosecutor’s Office.
Upon verifying their identities, authorities confirmed that one of those arrested was the fugitive wanted for the murder of Samcam.
“The matter goes further because, upon investigating the individuals, it was determined that one of them had an arrest warrant for a suspected contract killing,” Corella stated.
Firearms Seized During Operation
Soto explained that ballistic comparisons of the 9mm handgun and an AR-15 rifle found inside the vehicle will be conducted to determine “if these weapons are related” to Samcam’s murder, although “it appears they are not, given the difference in calibers.” However, according to the OIJ (Judicial Investigation Agency), the possibility that the detainees are linked to other homicides in Costa Rica has not been ruled out.
The OIJ chief, however, indicated that it remains to be determined who carried out Samcam’s murder. “The intellectual authorship aspect is always more complex. We are conducting an analysis to try to clarify who ordered the murder. This is something we will also develop within the ongoing legal process,” he said.
According to the OIJ investigation, Carvajal Fernández is believed to be the perpetrator who, on the morning of June 19, 2025, at approximately 7:45 a.m., entered Samcam’s residence, taking advantage of repair work being done on the gate to the condominium complex.
The hitman went to a building and went up to the second floor, where Samcam lived. Once he had his victim in his sights, he riddled him with bullets. “There are videos, testimonies, and expert evidence that allow us to determine the participation of the perpetrators,” stated Attorney General Carlo Díaz during one of the raids where four of the five suspects were captured.
In this case, Costa Rican authorities had already arrested three men and one woman as alleged accomplices in September 2025. Those arrested include Chaves Medina, 35, apprehended in Cañas, Guanacaste; Chacón Guillén, 30; and Orozco González, 33, arrested during raids in León XIII, Tibás.
Samcam’s Widow Demands Justice
Claudia Vargas, Samcam’s widow, upon receiving the news, said that this arrest “is an important step” in the pursuit of justice for the crime.
“The investigation will lead us to the masterminds, across the border, and to the dictators,” she stated in a social media post.
Vargas insisted that justice must “go to the very end” and that “those who planned, ordered, and sustained this transnational crime must also be identified, investigated, and punished.”
Soto recalled that the case caused “great shock not only in the country but also internationally due to the victim’s background.”
Samcan, an outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega
Roberto Samcam, a retired military major who had fled to Costa Rica in 2018 during the Ortega regime’s crackdown against opposition protestors, was assassinated on June 19, 2025, shot eight times at point-blank range in his condo in Moravia, San José, Costa Rica. He was an outspoken critic of the Nicaraguan regime under President Daniel Ortega.
Judicial files include reports of Pablo Robles Murillo meeting with Nicaraguan military leadership shortly before the murder. A photo of Rosario Murillo (Nicaragua’s Co-President) was also found on a suspect’s phone.
Investigation files link Pablo Robles Murillo, a former Sandinista soldier with ties to top Nicaraguan military officials, as the “mastermind” who allegedly coordinated with Nicaraguan military intelligence.
The UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua and Costa Rican prosecutors have investigated the crime as a case of transnational repression, suggesting it was ordered by the Nicaraguan regime to silence dissent in exile.
World Politics Review’s James Bosworth wrote shortly after Samcam’s murder, “an assassination on foreign soil is not without precedent in Latin America, but what makes this case different is that the current Nicaraguan regime has been engaged in a multiyear pattern of attacks against political opponents in exile, many of whom live in Costa Rica.”