By Wendy Anders

Last Wednesday saw a shoot out in Puntarenas as police closed in on suspects in recent thefts who are also linked to the gruesome murder of a Dutch couple around Christmastime last year, said the  judicial investigative police (OIJ) press office.

The Dutch news service, dutchnews.nl, reported on the arrests last week saying, “Plantation director Hans Snelders, his wife Sita Dwahtal (both Dutch nationals) and a Nicaraguan worker were found dead on the teak plantation where they lived. They were discovered by another worker when he returned from holiday. The couple lived in an isolated part of the country, southwest of the capital San José. The murders are thought to have taken place around Christmas (2015) but were only discovered in January, the news agency ANP said. Police have said the couple was killed in a robbery but other motives have not been ruled out.”

November 30 at 4:00 a.m., four people, two of them suspected of a triple homicide and house break-ins were arrested by agents of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), special agents from the Puntarenas Regional Delegation, together with Special Tactical Response Service agents (SERT) and Special Intervention Unit officers (UEI) from the Presidential Ministry. The detainees are all male; aged 23, 30, 32 and 54 years old, continued the OIJ.

The triple homicide involved the death of a Dutch couple (42 and 52 years of age) and a Nicaraguan man (24 years old) in Sardinal, Puntarenas, whose bodies were found on January 4 this year, reported the OIJ.

Police raided eleven sites in Esparza, Barranca and El Roble de Puntarenas to find and detain the suspects. In a raid on a house in El Roble, officials were shot at by the suspects and one was wounded in the leg, said the OIJ press office.

The 32- and 54-year-old suspects have been linked with a 19-year-old man who is already being held in preventive custody for the alleged homicide of the Sardinal Dutch murders.

Preliminary reports indicate that the four suspects arrested Wednesday together with the man detained earlier this year apparently worked as a gang to break in to homes in Puntarenas and neighboring locales.

The five are linked to seven other house break-ins reported between May and October of this year, six in different sectors of Puntarenas and one in Orotina, said the OIJ.

During the arrests, police seized two pistols, jewelry, cell phones and articles that match descriptions of articles reported stolen in recent break-ins, said the OIJ.

The suspects are being held at the Public Prosecutor’s Office for further investigation into the case.