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A Friendly Encounter: Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Marco Ruiz (left) yesterday met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang during a visit to China. The two ministers discussed opportunities for trade and investment between the two countries. |
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Juan Carlos Arias | EFE
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| OIJ Agent, Accomplice Convicted of Drug Trafficking |
A Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) agent was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison for selling drugs seized by police and tipping off drug traffickers about OIJ operatives, according to Judicial Branch spokesman Sergio Bonilla.
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| Florida Companies Looking for Market Here |
Fourteen companies from the U.S. state of Florida are rolling into Costa Rica next week at the behest of the U.S. Embassy to seek opportunities to sell their products. |
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| Authorities Extradite U.S. Fugitive |
Immigration authorities yesterday deported a wily U.S. fugitive accused of attempted murder in the United States.
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| September 12 |
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Women's Club of Costa Rica Meeting
Special presentation by Michael Sims, author of “The Painted Oxcart,” 9:30 a.m., Café Robledales, Santo Domingo de Heredia, 75 meters south of Red Cross. Info: 244-6683, www.wccr.org.
“Ideas to Help Children with Mathematics”
Conference in Spanish, 5:30 p.m., Marco Tulio Salazar Auditorium, CIDE, Universidad Nacional, Heredia. Info: 277-3369.
Latin American Film Festival
Featuring “Golpe a Golpe” (Uruguay), and “Utopía El Cuerpo Disperso y el Mundo al Revés,” (Honduras), 7 p.m., Sala Calle 15, Ave. 2, across from Plaza de la Democracia.
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Edited By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net |
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OIJ Agent, Accomplice Convicted of Drug Trafficking |
By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net
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A Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) agent was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison for selling drugs seized by police and tipping off drug traffickers about OIJ operatives, according to Judicial Branch spokesman Sergio Bonilla.
The agent, identified by the last name Castro, also worked with an accomplice, identified as Villalobos, to whom Castro distributed drugs to be sold in the streets of El Infiernillo, a neighborhood in Alajuela, northwest of San José, known for rampant poverty and crime. Villalobos was sentenced to eight years in prison.
“It's one of the most problematic neighborhoods in the country,” Bonilla said of El Infiernillo. Castro, who lived there, was an OIJ drug agent assigned to the area.
Castro and Villalobos were detained in a raid in 2005, in which cocaine was also seized, and have been in preventive prison leading up to the trial, which was held yesterday in a criminal court in Alajuela.
The raids were based on evidence the Chief Prosecutor Office's Drug Trafficking Department obtained by tapping Castro's phone. |
Florida Companies Looking for Market Here |
Fourteen companies from the U.S. state of Florida are rolling into Costa Rica next week at the behest of the U.S. Embassy to seek opportunities to sell their products.
Most of the companies lean toward transportation, logistics and industrial materials. Atlantic Truck Center, TC Xports and Coastal International Logistics are just a few examples on the transport and logistics end. Meanwhile, Adhesives Technology Corp. will be looking to sell construction materials, and Berkel Miami Inc. will be offering industrial food processing equipment.
The trade meeting will take place next Wednesday and Thursday at the Hotel Inter-Continental in the western suburb of Escazú. Those interested in making an appointment can call the U.S. Embassy's Trade Office at 519-2271. |
-Tico Times
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Authorities Extradite U.S. Fugitive |
By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net
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Immigration authorities yesterday deported a wily U.S. fugitive accused of attempted murder in the United States.
Authorities here had a hard time capturing Nicholas Himmelsbach, 26, who fought off five Costa Rican cops who tried to detain him and then escaped from an Immigration holding cell after his arrest.
According to Immigration spokeswoman Heidy Bonilla, Himmelsbach was extradited to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he is accused of attempted murder and of being involved in a drive-by shooting in that city earlier this year.
Authorities nabbed the suspect last week at a friend's house in Rohrmoser, west of San José.
Once he was finally taken into custody, authorities took him to an Immigration holding center in nearby Hatillo, which he escaped from an hour after arriving. Authorities were able to track him down and arrest him again.
They put him in a high-security detention center while his extradition was processed, according to a statement from International Police (Interpol).
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