By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Professional Migration Police officers arrested three Costa Ricans in the communities of El Roble and Chorreras in the San Carlos area* in the northern zone of the country as suspects of illegal immigrant trafficking.

According to the police report, the people arrested are two men surnamed Cruz and Porras and one woman surnamed Solís.

The suspects were arrested when they were escorting 15 people, all Nicaraguans, who had entered the country illegally, the police said.

According to the police, The migrants were traveling in a pick-up vehicle and another sedan-type car when they were intercepted by the immigration officers.

"The investigation determined that migrants are from Nicaragua, who arrived in the national territory by boat by the Caño La Venada sector," said the police in its report. "In this sector, foreign people were captured and moved, in unsafe vehicles and at high speeds, at the most capacity than the vehicle allowed, to the Crucitas area*, with the purpose of carrying out the illegal extraction of minerals."

According to the police, the three suspects charged large sums of money to immigrants to take them to the Crucitas area.

The three Costa Ricans were taken to the cells of the Public Ministry in Cuidad Quesada, where they were interrogated by the judicial agents and after that, they must wait until a judge orders any pre-trial measures against them.

Meanwhile, the Nicaraguans were arrested as suspects of illegal entry to the country and were taken to the cells of the Directorate of Migration. The process in this institution is different. Each person's case will be analyzed, and if applicable, they will be deported to their country of origin.

“The Professional Migration Police executes these types of repressive actions in order to fight against the trafficking of migrants and related activities, which threaten national security and the lives of migrants,” said. Stephen Madden, director of the Professional Migration Police.

Related to the controversial case know as Crucitas, the Prosecutor General's Office accused former president Óscar Arias Sánchez of  malfeasance for decreeing that the mining project, operated by the company Infinito Gold Mining* in Cutris de San Carlos, was of national interest.

In September of last year, a criminal court asked that the legal status of the former president be determined.

Arias was never charged for the granting of the mining concession or for the declaration of national convenience of that activity, but his former minister of the Environment, Roberto Dobles, who also signed the declaration, was charged in the case and convicted in January 2015. Arias was not charged then.

This sentence was annulled, and a preliminary hearing is pending to establish if the case is going back to trial.

The case now will be brought before the criminal court of the Treasury which will hold a hearing to determine if there are enough elements to bring it to trial.

Arias was investigated in Nov. 8, 2017, and insisted on his innocence.

The reactivation of the case was covered by a legal analysis ordered by the attorney general in order to deepen the search for new evidence that was not incorporated into the investigation file at the appropriate time, the judiciary said.

Arias served two terms as president. The first term was from 1986 to 1990. The second was from 2006 to 2010. It was during the second term when the Crucitas situation developed.

The Crucitas open pit gold mining operation was controversial. After Arias signed the decree, a court shut down the project to protect some trees favored by endangered birds. The mining company's Canadian parent, Infinito Gold, Ltd., brought a case in March 2014 against Costa Rica in the World Bank's arbitration system based on a trade agreement between the two countries. That case still is pending, and Costa Rica just filed additional paperwork.

The Crucitas site now is invaded periodically by illegal miners. At one time the company estimated that there was about $2 billion in gold in the ground.


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