Costa Rica’s Immigration Police announced the arrest of a 38-year-old Syrian national suspected of ties to terrorist activities on Tuesday. The arrest took place at the Paso Canoas border crossing, where the individual’s identity was confirmed through police and biometric filters during entry control.
“The foreigner stated that he had no first-degree family ties in Costa Rica. Therefore, he was immediately apprehended and will be sent to the Detention Center for deportation proceedings,” authorities reported.
Mario Zamora, Costa Rica’s Minister of Security, criticized the ease with which the suspect managed to travel across Africa and South America before reaching Costa Rica.
This operation marks the fifth arrest this year in Costa Rica involving foreigners with suspected terrorist connections. Three of these individuals have already been deported. In June, two Somali nationals linked to Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda affiliate, were expelled from the country. Another pending case involves the deportation of a Tajikistani man with alleged ties to ISIS.
On the same day, Costa Rica extradited Maikel Villegas Rodríguez, a Venezuelan national wanted in Chile for the politically charged murder of Ronald Ojeda, a former Venezuelan military dissident, in Santiago.
Villegas was arrested on July 12 at the Paso Canoas border crossing after entering Costa Rica by bus with a group of migrants. His identity was confirmed through an international Interpol alert, which allowed Costa Rican authorities to detain him.
According to Minister Zamora, Villegas “fled Chile and traveled the entire American continent country by country” despite the alert issued against him. He was transferred to the Central Region Detention Center, where authorities coordinated his extradition.
The Chilean Air Force transported Villegas to Santiago, where he will face trial for the kidnapping and murder of Ojeda. The Chilean Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the primary hypothesis for the crime is political motives. Ojeda, a 32-year-old retired military officer, was kidnapped in February by individuals posing as police officers and later found dead in a suitcase buried in Santiago.
Minister Zamora highlighted Costa Rica’s commitment to fulfilling its international responsibilities, stating that the extradition reinforces the country’s role in combating transnational crime.
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