www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Wonder if any of this stash was raised by some of the hard core Colombians at the HDR.

Miami Herald Sunday March 16, 2008


Posted on Sun, Mar. 16, 2008
Apparent FARC cash uncovered in Costa Rica
BY GONZALO GUILLEN

Tipped by the Colombian military, Costa Rican authorities found almost $500,000 believed to belong to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in an old safe in a house near the Costa Rican capital of San José.

A Colombian judiciary source told El Nuevo Herald that information found in a FARC computer seized by the military in a raid to a jungle camp led to the discovery of the money in a house occupied since 1985 by a retired teacher and his wife.

The source said the discovery indicates that Costa Rica is still a strategic country for the rebels, who in 2001 tried to open a regional office in San José after their Mexico City base was shut down by the government.

In a computer belonging to late FARC leader Raúl Reyes, Colombian police investigators found the name of Costa Rican teacher Francisco Gutiérrez Pérez, the amount of money -- $480,000 -- he was supposed to be holding for the FARC and the address of the house.

Costa Rican authorities raided the house on Friday and found the money, the Colombian government confirmed. Gutiérrez Pérez and his wife, Cruz Prado Rojas, were not home.

Immigration authorities later said the couple had left the country on Feb. 14 bound for Mexico and Guatemala.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Do you suppose they will use that money to help refurbish the orphanage? NOT.

_________________
My life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming...." MAN....WHAT A RIDE!!!!"

Wow, that is the first time I have heard of captured intelligence really paying off like that. What were they thinking leaving that info on the computer?

Can you say Hugo ?

Probably can not blame this one on Hugo even though the CIA will try

The money was most likely hidden here in 2001.

From this mornings Inside Costa Rica.

" Cash Belonging to Colombian Rebels Believed Hidden in Costa Rica For More Than Seven Years
Costa Rican authorities believed that the us$480.000 stash found last Friday and belonging to the Rodrigo Granda, of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) rebel group, may have been hidden in Costa Rica since 2001.

Authorities believe that Granda, who was killed in a shootout with the Colombian army, was the only person to have brought the money to Costa Rica and was kept hidden in a safe in the house of Francisco Gutiérrez, in Santa Barabara de Heredia.

Apparenlty it the case containing the cash was never opened as Granda is believed to have lost the key when he was detained by police in 2006.

The find was made after an email found in the personal computer of Raúl Reyes, the number two man in the FARC, where Granda explained the location of the money and to find someone with a key or way of opening the safe as he did no longer have the key.

In addition to the existence and location of the money, the ministro de Segridad Pública, Fernando Berrocal, said that Reyes computer also contained names of Costa Rican politicians who sympathized with the Colombian rebels, however, did not make the names public.

The find of the almost half million dollars is not the end of the investigation, more is sure to come as authorities dig in deeper into the connection between the Colombian rebels and Costa Rican politicians."

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine