|
Skeletal remains of
U.S. citizen Tony Creighton found,
confirm specialists
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
On Tuesday, agents of the Judicial
Investigation Organization confirmed that
the skeletal remains found last week
buried in a property on the outskirts of Quepos*, in the
province of Puntarenas, are U.S. citizen
William Sean Creighton Kopko. The man
known as Tony Creighton was the victim of
a kidnapping.
According to the investigation, the human
remains were analyzed by forensic
specialists in laboratory tests. Test
results are 100 positive results the
remains belong to Creighton.
The case continues in the investigation,
so agents cannot reveal more details about
the clues that led them to find the
remains or the progress of the
investigation.
However, as A.M. Costa Rica published in
January, agents offered information about
advances in the case.
At that time, Walter Espinoza, General
Director of the Judicial Investigation
Organization, provided more details about
the investigation into the kidnapping of
Creighton, which occurred on September 24,
2018.
The Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Criminal
Investigations Department recounted the
details of what occurred after Mr.
Creighton left his job in San Pedro to go
to his home in
Curridabat*.
That night, two transit officers, one
named Medrano-Vargas and the other
surnamed Jirón-López, who are now
suspected of being part of the kidnapper's
gang, followed Mr. Creighton.
When they reached the town of
Granadilla*
, the officers pretended they were making
a routine traffic stop and asked Mr.
Creighton to pull over.
Mr. Creighton complied. A group of four
men arrived at the site in a gray pickup
truck and kidnapped him. Those suspects
are identified as Morales-Vega, classified
as the leader, Vega-Aguirre,
Martínez-Chacón, and Ford-Dauman.
Ford-Dauman had previously been arrested
for theft and resisting arrest.
The men forced the victim into the pickup
and drove to a property in the village of
La Trinidad in
Moravia* where the
gang leader’s grandmother lives. Her
surname was given as Aguirre-Leal.
One of the suspects, Ford-Dauman, drove
the victim’s car away, but for reasons
that are still unclear, he crashed the car
in the town of San Isidro in the province
of
Heredia*. The suspect
communicated with the other kidnappers to
report what happened and then left the car
at the crash site. The vehicle was
confiscated by the police and an
investigative analysis was conducted to
collect more evidence.
After taking the victim to the property in
La Trinidad in Moravia*, the suspects
communicated several times with relatives
of the victim. At first, they asked for a
ransom of five million dollars but a
payment of $950,800 was accepted. The
payment was made in Bitcoin currencies in
four different accounts.
The fact that the payment was made in this
type of virtual currency was of great help
for the investigators who could follow the
trail of the transaction until it reached
three accounts belonging to three of the
suspects.
"One of the Bitcoin accounts was accessed
from the house of Morales-Vega identified
as the leader, who lived in the province
of
Cartago*.
This was a major clue that helped guide
the investigation," said Espinoza.
Once the kidnappers received the ransom,
all communication between the suspects and
the victim’s family ceased, investigators
said.
After accessing the victim's account from
a device located in Cartago, Morales-Vega,
left the country by land to Panama, then
traveled to El Salvador and Cuba before
finally traveling to Zaragoza, Spain.
Two other people also left Costa Rica. One
is the leader's girlfriend, surnamed
Solís-Chaves and the leader’s mother,
surnamed Vega-Aguirre. Both women traveled
to Cuba and then to Spain together.
Once they had gathered sufficient
evidence, investigators contacted the
Organized Crime Unit in Spain. Spanish
investigators placed the three suspects
under surveillance and monitored them for
a period of approximately one month until
a simultaneous raid could be coordinated
in Costa Rica and Spain.
In Spain, with the help of the National
Police, there was a search of a house in
the city of Zaragoza where the following
people were detained:
- A man surnamed Morales-Vega.
- A woman surnamed Solís-Chaves,
identified as the wife of the leader.
- A woman surnamed Vega-Aguirre,
identified as the mother of the leader.
The video of the arrest of the three
suspects in Spain, provided by the Spanish
police, can be reached at the AM Costa
Rica Youtube channel here.*
In Costa Rica, investigators detained the
following people:
-A woman surnamed Aguirre-Leal, identified
as the leader's grandmother who lives on
the property of La Trinidad in Moravia*
where the victim was taken.
-A woman surnamed Sanabria-Abarca, who is
suspected of having done surveillance work
on the victim.
-A man surnamed Vega-Aguirre, the leader's
brother and also part of the group of men
who were in the pickup truck.
-A man surnamed Martínez-Chacón, who was
another of the four men who traveled in
the pickup.
-A man surnamed Ford-Dauman, who was the
one who apparently handled the car of the
victim which crashed the car in Heredia.
-A man surnamed Rivera-Masis, 64 years
old, an alleged member of the gang.
-A man surnamed Sánchez-Gamboa, an alleged
member of the gang.
-A man surnamed Medrano-Vargas, a transit
police officer.
-A man surnamed Jiron-Lopez, a transit
police officer.
Investigators confirm that in December
2018, the suspects were extradited from
Spain.
All the suspects have been held in cells
of the Public Ministry since then. They
are being interviewed and more evidence
collection is underway.
Among the results of the investigation are
the seizure of vehicles, evidence linking
the suspects to the withdrawal of the
money, information on the distribution of
the money to members of the gang,
communications between the suspects, and
records confirming the places where some
of the suspects watched and tracked the
victim.
Investigators theorize that Mr. Creighton
was targeted for two reasons, the victim
had an important income as a result of his
company of sport-books, and the gang
members knew that the victim’s business
involved Bitcoin. They probably thought
that transactions in Bitcoin were more
difficult to detect.
--------------------------
Are foreigners easy targets for crooks in
Costa Rica? We would like to know your
thoughts on this story. Send your comments
to: news@amcostarica.com
|
Want to
write or gripe
about Costa Rica?
Want to submit an event
to our calendar?
Send all the information news@amcostarica.com
Profile pictures are welcome
too !
-No
defamatory pieces will be
accepted.
-We reserve the right to
publish.
|
