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Gilberto Ventura Ceballos was arrested today in Jacó by Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) and the Directorate of Intelligence and National Security (DIS) officials. The Dominican national, who has a knack for evading arrest, is wanted in Panama for the murder of five people in 2010 and 2011.
The young man has been on the run since December 2016 when he escaped from La Joyita prison on the eastern outskirts of Panama City. That was after having run from police in his native country in 2011.
According to the Panamanian local press, Ventura took advantage of a trip to deliver papers to his lawyer in Panama City in December of last year to escape despite having been escorted by police.
Ventura Ceballos had been arrested in 2011 by Dominican police agents when he was then extradited to Panama to be tried for the deaths of five young people between 2010 and 2011. He had run a business in Panama City called Celulares Solución prior to 2011.
Dominican investigators caught the suspect in Boca Chica, about 30 kilometers east of the capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo. Ventura was submerged in a tank of water to hide from police.
The Dominican is implicated in the crime along with another Dominican identified as José Alcibiades Méndez, who allegedly buried the victims in his garden. Alcibiades Méndez had been in Panama since 2003 where he also ran a cell phone business; it was called José Celular.
The victims of these crimes were five young Chinese-Panamanians: Yesenia Lou Kam, 18; Young Wu Ken, 27; Sammy Zenq Chen, 19; Yoel Liu Wung, 19, and Georgina Lee Chen, 18. They were alleged to have been kidnapped and then killed by the above-named individuals when a ransom payment was not forthcoming.
The death of the five youth caused outrage among the Chinese-Panamanian community and great commotion in the neighborhood of La Chorrera. When Ventura escaped from prison in December 2016, several thousands of people demonstrated to repudiate the kidnappings and murders and clamor for justice, as reported in Panama’s El Dia.
