On Friday afternoon, agents from the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) arrested a 31-year old male expat who is alleged to have run a sexual extortion scheme against his lover.

The suspect is from Panama and has been residing in Costa Rica for a few years. A couple of years ago, he met a 35-year old woman with whom he established a romantic and sexual relationship with. During their time together as lovers, the couple chose to film some of their most intimate encounters.

Sometime after their sex video sessions were recorded with a smartphone, the affair went sour and the expat blackmailed his former lover. Using the sex video as leverage, he demanded the extortion amount of $200 delivered every two weeks.

With the threat of the sex video being posted to Facebook, the most popular online social network in Costa Rica, and being shared among her WhatsApp contacts, the woman initially agreed to the extortion scheme.

According to the official press release by OIJ, the suspect upped the ante a couple of weeks ago. He told his victim that he needed to purchase a motorcycle, and thus he proceeded to demand a lump sum extortion payment of five million colones (more than $10,000 at today’s currency exchange rate).

Faced with such a high extortion amount, the woman decided to put a stop to the sex video game. She contacted the agents, who in turn formulated a strategy to nab the suspect. Using marked bills, they established a rendezvous point at La Sabana Metropolitan Park in San Jose; the agents also set up a surveillance and action perimeter to ensure the safety of the woman.

After the victim handed over the marked cash to the expat, agents swooped in for the arrest and further transport to the prosecutor’s office.