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The three
suspects: a man surnamed
Morales-Vega, his mother
surnamed Vega-Aguirre and
his girlfriend
surnamed Solís-Chaves,
were extradited
from Spain
/
National Police from Spain
courtesy photos.
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Main
suspects in kidnapping of
U.S. citizen
arrived in country
extradited from Spain
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica
staff
The Prosecutor’s Office of
Drug Trafficking and Related
Offenses confirmed that two of
the three main people
suspected of committing the
extortion kidnapping of U.S.
citizen William Sean
Creighton-Kopko have arrived
in the country from Spain.
The two suspects that are
already in the cells of the
Public Ministry are a man
surnamed Morales-Vega,
classified by the
investigators as the leader of
the gang and his mother, a
woman surnamed Vega-Aguirre.
It is expected the third
suspect, a woman surnamed
Solís-Chaves, the leader’s
girlfriend, will arrive in the
country from Spain in the
morning today.
According to the Prosecutor
Office, these three suspects
will be interviewed by agents
of the Judicial Investigation
Organization, then they stay
in cells until a judge issues
the precautionary pre-trial
measures against them.
As A.M. Costa Rica has been
reporting, on January 15th,
the judge of the Criminal
Court of San José ordered six
months of preventive detention
for five of the nine suspects
detained for the kidnapping of
Mr. Creighton-Kopko on Sept.
24, 2018.
According to the Prosecutor'
Office report, the following
suspects continue on pre-trial
detention:
-A man surnamed Vega-Aguirre,
brother of the leader who was
extradited from Spain. He is
suspect of being part of a
group of men who were in a
pickup truck where apparently
the victim was transported.
-A woman surnamed
Aguirre-Leal, identified as
the leader's grandmother, who
lives on the property of La Trinidad
in Moravia* where
apparently the victim was
taken.
-A man surnamed
Martinez-Chacón, who was also
is accused of being one of the
four men who traveled in a
pickup where the victim was
apparently transported.
-A man surnamed Ford-Dauman,
who was accused of driving the
victim's car which crashed in
Heredia*.
-A woman surnamed
Sanabria-Abarca, who is
suspected of having done
surveillance at the victim's
company building.
All these five suspects will
remain in prison until the
Judicial Investigation
Organization finishes evidence
collection and sends the
complete case to the Public
Prosecutor so that the formal
trial can begin.
In addition to these five
people, two other suspects, a
man surnamed Medrano-Vargas,
identified as a traffic police
officer and a man surnamed
Jiron-Lopez, another traffic
police officer, were not sent
to pre-trial jail, but control
measures were ordered to them.
They must sign in court once a
month, maintain the same home
address, meaning they are not
allowed to move out of their
homes, not leave the country
and not contact with anyone
who is part of the process.
What happened to Mr.
Creighton?
According to the
investigators, the two transit
officers followed the victim
until they reached the site
known as Granadilla
in Curridabat*. Then the
officers pretended to make a
routine traffic stop and asked
the victim to pull the car to
the side of the road. That
action allowed the group of
four men to arrive at the site
in a gray pickup truck and
they kidnapped the victim.
Two other suspects, a man
surnamed Sánchez-Gamboa and a
man surnamed Rivera-Masis,
will not go to detention. They
have to comply with the same
control measures that were
imposed on the two transit
officials.
Investigators say the case
started on September 24, 2018,
when Mr. Creighton was
reported missing after he left
his job in San Pedro to go to
his home in Curridabat.
As he did so, he was stopped
by transit police. Prosecutors
said that the four men who
then showed up in a pickup
were Morales-Vega, the leader,
Vega-Aguirre, Martínez-Chacón,
and Ford-Dauman.
The men forced the victim into
the pickup and drove to a
property in the village of La
Trinidad in Moravia. This is
where the leader’s
grandmother, surnamed
Aguirre-Leal, lives.
One of the suspects,
Ford-Dauman, is accused of
driving the victim’s car away,
but for reasons that are still
not clear, he crashed the car
in San Isidro in Heredia. He
then communicated with the
others to report what happened
and then left the car at the
crash site, prosecutors say.
This vehicle was confiscated
by the police and
investigative analysis was
made to collect more evidence.
After taking the victim to the
property in La Trinidad in
Moravia, kidnappers
communicated several times
with relatives of the victim.
At first, they asked for a
ransom of $5 million, but a
payment of $950,800 was
accepted. Once the kidnappers
received the money, all
communication between the
suspects and the victim’s
family ceased.
The payment was made in
bitcoin currencies in four
different accounts. One of the
bitcoin accounts was accessed
from the house of
Morales-Vega, identified as
the leader, in Cartago*,
said, prosecutors. Then
Morales-Vega left the country
by land to Panama, traveled to
El Salvador and Cuba before
finally traveling to Spain and
the city of Zaragoza*.
Two other people, Morales'
girlfriend, surnamed
Solís-Chaves, and his mother,
surnamed Vega-Aguirre,
traveled to Cuba to join him
and then traveled to Spain.
Once investigators gathered
sufficient evidence, they
contacted an organized crime
unit in Spain. Spanish
investigators placed the three
suspects under surveillance
and monitored them for about a
month until the simultaneous
raid was coordinated in Costa
Rica and Spain.
Among the results of the
investigation were: the
seizure of vehicles, evidence
linking the suspects to the
withdrawal of the money,
information on the
distribution of that money to
suspects, communications
between the suspects, and
records confirming the places
where some of the suspects
surveilled and tracked the
victim.
Investigators said they
theorize that Creighton was
targeted for two reasons. The
victim had high income as a
result of his company of
sportsbooks, and the gang
members knew that the victim’s
business involved
bitcoin. Transactions in
bitcoins are more difficult to
detect and follow.
Since the day Mr. Creighton
was kidnapped, the
investigators have been trying
to establish where the
suspects toke him and if he is
still alive.
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The
main suspect, his
girlfriend, and
mother arrested in
Spain were recorded
by Spanish Police.
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Should the
Prosecutor Office speed
the trial process related
in such a high profile
case? We
would like to know your thoughts
on this story. Send your comments
to: news@amcostarica.com
*Link to reach the place map.
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