5Dimes Owner was Held at Grandma's House
Sean "Tony" Creighton, the missing owner of 5Dimes Sportsbook in San Pedro, Costa Rica, was last seen at the home of a gang leader's grandmother.
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A total of 13 individuals, including two Costa Rican transit officers, were arrested in connection with the September 24 kidnapping Friday morning in Costa Rica and Spain. Sean "Tony" Creighton, 42, of Bridgeport, West Virginia, has run 5Dimes Sportsbook since 1999.
In Spain, the Civil Guard captured a computer engineer and alleged ring leader surnamed Morales Vega, his partner, surnamed Solís Chaves, and his mother, surnamed Vega Aguirre. Police do not believe Morales Vega had any previous ties to Creighton. Among those arrested in Costa Rica were the grandmother of Mr. Vega, 71-year-old, surnamed Aguirre Leal.
Reports have surfaced that Creighton was taken to the grandmother's home in Costa Rica and has not been seen or heard from since. Police are in the process of digging up the grandmother's yard (see photo)
The mother, Vega Aguirre, is said to have spent time outside the Edificio Equus building where 5Dimes is housed and alerted the others that Creighton had departed. The two transit officers reportedly followed Creighton and his vehicle was then intercepted. From there other members of the crew abducted the sportsbook operator at gunpoint.
A near $1 million ransom was paid via Bitcoin by Creighton's wife before she contacted law enforcement. The perpetrators then demanded another $5 million, not paid. Authorities were able to trace the Bitcoin payment to three wallets.
Walter Espinoza, director of Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) in Costa Rica, released the following statement:
¨The District Attorney´s office carried out 10 searches today in relation to a kidnapping that occurred on September 24, 2018, OIJ received the report the following day, September 25, 2018, the victim of the kidnap is an American businessman of last name Creighton, first name William, that had commercial activities in the area of San Pedro. This person was intercepted in the area of Granadilla, Curridabat, precisely the night of September 24, this event had the participation of at least four people, these four people were aboard a gray pick-up truck (…) according to the hypothesis of the police, two officers of the transit police also took part of the event, these two officers contributed to stopping Creighton´s car, this allowed the people aboard the pick-up truck to proceed with the kidnapping. It was at this point that the criminal group began negotiations with the victim´s family to obtain ransom money, initially they requested a very high amount, of close to $5 million USD, this amount was then brought down to close to $1 million USD which is the amount that was actually paid through the use of crypto currency, specifically bitcoins. OIJ initiated the investigation on September 25 when the report was received and after negotiations and the payment had already taken place. At this point we were able to determine that the suspects had maintained communication among themselves, that some of them had already left the country, and we managed to establish that they had distributed the different functions to carry out the crime”.
¨The searches took place in Cartago (2), La Union (2), Santo Domingo Heredia (1), La Trinidad Moravia (1), Limón, Siquirres and Sarapiquí; three people were also detained in Zaragoza, Spain in collaboration with Spanish authorities, this because the investigation showed that the leader of the organization, identified as Jorduan Morales Vega had left the country by ground to Panama, he then traveled to El Salvador and from there to Cuba where he remained for one month and then moved to Spain where we relocated several times. Spanish police has maintained vigilance over the suspects for over a month. In Spain three people were detained, Morales Vega, his wife, Maria Fernanda Solís Cháves, and the mother of Morales, of name Guiselle Vega Aguirre (…) (there is evidence that both the mother and wife were directly related with the crime) during the search we found documents that link the suspects to the kidnap, particularly financial information, including details of the three e-wallets were the ransom money was transferred. (…) The grandmother of Morales Vega was also arrested in Moravia, with strong links to the kidnapping”.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
