OIJ Finds 60 Stolen Guns

Judicial  detectives of OIJ, the local equivalent to the FBI or Scotland Yard, found 60 of the 215 missing guns on Thursday. The pistols had been robbed at gunpoint for the Traffic Police warehouse just off Plaza Gonzalez Viquez in downtown San Jose.

The guns were located behind a false wall panel in a house in the metropolitan suburb of Alajuelita. OIJ director Jorge Rojas said the operation began Thursday night after the suspected leader of the gang that stole the Glock 19 service pistols was detained.

At least one other person was arrested in the OIJ operation.

Meanwhile, Traffic Police director Cesar Quiros and three others, including the warehouse manager, were temporarily suspended with pay while an internal investigation of charges of negligence were being conducted by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to which the Traffic Police are assigned.

Usually in this country, service pistols are carefully guarded in strongrooms and safes. The robbery caused general disgust among the general populace while some opposition lawmakers called for the dismissal of Minister of Transport Francisco Jimenez, to whom the Traffic cop director answers.

The daring raid, obviously planned by persons with inside information about storage of the pistols, which had entered the country only three months before, was carried out by four criminals who held the two private guards on duty at gunpoint and tied them up. (See previous article.)

Director Quiros will return to the internal auditor post at the Highway Safety Council (Cosevi) from which he was plucked to become the Traffic Police director when President Laura Chinchilla took office, La Nacion reported.

The robbery did not escape the eagle eye of the satiric news blog Infierno en Costa Rica which offered up a fake ad showing Minister Jimenez holding up a submachine gun against the backdrop of pistols displayed on a wall. The ad boasted of a "new shipment available."

Note: Recent news has not mentioned the bullet proof vests that early reports said were stored in the warehouse. Either the vests were not disturbed or the police are being tight-lipped about them. Potentially, they could be more damaging in the hands of criminals than even the pistols.