When the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) recently announced a major sweep that netted 361 arrests of known street gang members and collaborators, it was revealed some of those in custody are from Costa Rica and may have ties to Guanacaste. This is a grim reminder that although anti-gang efforts in Costa Rica have been effective, law enforcement agencies need to remain vigilant.

The presence of the fearsome Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members in Costa Rica has been reviewed in depth by Bill Grimstead of the Costa Rica Star. The Ministry of Public Safety, the Organization of Judicial Investigations (OIJ) and Fuerza Publica, Costa Rica’s national police force, have been diligent in their efforts to keep away the terrible violence that is associated with MS-13. This street gang originated in the streets of Los Angeles, California, and has spread throughout the Americas and Europe.

As Bill Grimstead has explained:

[…] Costa Rica has largely been spared the violence associated with these feared groups. Here, street gangs are mostly dominated by small, local factions competing for territory in poor neighborhoods with few ties to international criminal networks.

In recent years, reports of Mara activity in Costa Rica have been few and far between. Immigration agents are known to deny entry to persons bearing obvious tattoos or symbols related to known Maras. However, there have been a few cases which sparked fear that the gang was attempting to make inroads into the country. 

A Truly International Organization

In recent years, MS-13 elements operated from Guanacaste. In 2006, and before it became a sports publication, newspaper Al Dia published a report of an execution-style murder that took place in the early hours of an April morning, right at the entrance of the Ocotal neighborhood in Playas del Coco. The victim was a heavily tattooed Guatemalan national believed to have been a member of MS-13.

An OIJ agent assigned to that case explained that he had been investigating a lucrative drug trafficking operation ran by Europeans and Central Americans with MS-13 ties. French and Italian nationals who become affiliated to MS-13 in their native countries quickly learn Spanish and Spanglish, the two official languages of the gang, and they use their European Union passports to be admitted to Costa Rica. Depending on their particular situation, these foreign nationals may resort to robbery in the beginning, as was the case in April 2006 when two construction managers were robbed of $22,000 that they had withdrawn from a bank in Playas del Coco for the purpose of making payroll.

In 2008, Al Dia reported on the arrest of a Salvadorian MS-13 leader who was on a recruiting mission in Guanacaste. The suspect’s dossier indicated that the man, who appeared to be highly intelligent and charismatic, had served a year in prison in his native country for running an extortion racket targeting corrupt businessmen.

Fuerza Publica Cracks Down

MS-13 remained active in Guanacaste, although in a small scale, during the economic boom of the early 21^st century. They profited mostly by retail drug trafficking and small-time gun smuggling, but those activities only yielded pocket change. Money laundering through real estate was their most profitable activity. By 2008, Fuerza Publica convinced prosecutors that they had enough evidence to conduct a sweep and deployed 200 officers to Playas del Coco, Tamarindo Beach (also known as “Tamagringo”) and other communities in the Carrillo and Santa Cruz cantons.

That operation, which netted more than 80 arrests, essentially dismantled MS-13 in Guanacaste. Nearly all suspects were foreigners. Law enforcement agents and analysts believe that Costa Rica’s status as an international waypoint for drug trafficking to the United States, Canada and Europe attracted MS-13, and the relative absence of violence has been attributed to the leadership. MS-13 leaders in Costa Rica are aware that inciting violence in a peaceful country would quickly call attention to their presence, and thus they do not operate as if they were in Los Angeles or Honduras.

That Guanacaste crackdown did not signal the end of MS-13 in Costa Rica. Back in January, TV news show Hoy from Channel 9 investigated the ongoing MS-13 truce in El Salvador and how it has significantly reduced violence in that country. This truce has also had the side effect of prompting MS-13 to increase its international presence and change its violent ways. To this effect, law enforcement agencies in Guanacaste need to keep an open eye on new developments.