Agents from the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) raided two bars and arrested two male suspects under suspicion of operating underground brothels. The arrests and raids took place earlier this week in Guapiles, province of Limon, and Cartago, the former capital city of Costa Rica.

The two men arrested are brothers aged 56 and 65. According to an official media release issued by the OIJ, agents had received confidential information months ago with regard to a possible case of sexual exploitation; to that effect, the case was referred to the Human Trafficking Investigative Section.

The investigation led agents to assume that the suspects operated a network that recruited women from the Dominican Republic who wanted to leave their country and come to Costa Rica in search of greater economic opportunity. The network operators covered the travel expenses of the women to Nicaragua, where it was easier for them to obtain entry visas.

Once in Nicaragua, the women were transported to Costa Rica by means of a clandestine border crossing. Once they were safely in our country, the Dominican women were recruited as prostitutes and assigned to work at either one of the bars owned by the suspects.

The prostitutes were ostensibly expected to work for the purpose of paying their debt to the network that brought them to Costa Rica. Some of them lived at the bars in Cartago and Guapiles. The investigation revealed that the women provided sexual services to male clients at the bars; the starting price was 13,000 colones (about $26) for 30 minutes, but clients also had the opportunity to pay a house fee of about $60 per prostitute if they wanted to take them out of the bar and to a more comfortable setting such as a love motel.

The bars were raided at 11:00 pm on a weekday. Clients and prostitutes who were engaged in a sex for cash transaction were ordered to cover up, and the agents arrested one suspect in Guapiles. His brother was arrested in the Zapote district, where he had just stepped off a bus from Cartago.

Evidence confiscated by the OIJ agents included $6,000 in colones and $500 in United States dollars. Other items collected included condoms and work schedules that suggested the prostitutes worked alternating shifts between the two bars. The agents did not report any findings of sexual coercion, and all prostitutes were adults, and there were no signs of an operation that catered to sexual tourists in Costa Rica.

The two suspects are currently in custody and expected to be charged with deriving proceeds off prostitution, among other offenses. In Costa Rica, acts of prostitution between consenting adults are not illegal, but any third party that receives an economic benefit from a remunerated sexual transaction may be charged as a pimp or panderer.