By Wendy Anders

The judicial branch in a press statement summarizing this week’s activity noted that the Alajuela Criminal Court found two men guilty of illegal drug dealing, and a woman guilty of money laundering.

The court sentenced a Hungarian man by the last name of Halasz to 10 years in jail, and another man named Otárola to eight years.

This same court sentenced a Mexican woman by the last name of Rodríguez to 10 years prison time for money laundering.

The three appear to be part of a criminal organization with ties to Mexico that operated in Alajuela and San José dealing drugs and laundering narcodollars. They were arrested in July 2013.

Rodríguez was a stewardess who apparently secreted the money into Costa Rica; and the two men were involved in buying and storing cocaine, and packing it for transport throughout the country.

Over in Limón, five men received prison sentences of seven years for drug possession and international drug dealing.

They were captured by the National Coastguard and Anti-Drug Police on December 18, 2015 in the afternoon when they were traveling in a speedboat filled with nylon sacks of cocaine 3km out from the mouth of the Banano River in Wesfalia, Limón.

The men are identified as having the last names Barrios, Villalobos, Guzmán, Colón and Pérez.

And finally, also in Limón, the criminal court handed a 12-year term to a man by the name of Fernández for child sexual abuse.

He was found guilty of raping a minor after the child’s mother reported the case; a change in her child’s behavior served as the tip-off.

The man was detained in Bribri, Limón in March 2015.