Nicaraguan Keny Hosman Navarrete Vallecillo, originally from Diriamba, Carazo, has been identified as the alleged person who orchestrated with some Costa Rican hitmen the murder of the retired major of the Nicaraguan Army, Roberto Samcam Ruiz, according to a report expanding the investigations of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) of Costa Rica.
In the document, dated March 6, 2026 and in the possession of CONFIDENTIALit is indicated that “the perpetrators of the homicide, They executed Mr. Roberto Samcam in exchange for money, coordinating the action possibly commissioned by prisoner Keny Hosman Navarrete Vallecillo.”
The Nicaraguan, 38 years old and known under the alias “Chatel”, has been serving a sentence since 2016 for the crimes of aggravated robbery, deprivation of liberty and reception (purchase and concealment of stolen goods). He is being held in pavilion C-4 of the Jorge Arturo Montero Castro Institutional Care Center (CAI), a prison known as “La Reforma”, in San Rafael de Alajuela, northwest of San José.
During a review of Keny Navarrete’s cell, OIJ investigators found evidence that points to an “unusual” standard of living and resource management for a construction worker or driver, occupations that the Nicaraguan declared he had. Among his belongings was a notebook with bank account notes that mentioned “16,700 dollars and 4,100 million.” The latter refer to millions of colones, which at the official exchange rate would be more than 9,110 dollars.
For the authorities, these findings suggest the “distribution of money from some irregular event.”
Communications prior to Samcam’s murder
“Through the telephone information obtained so far, it was possible to determine that there are a large number of calls on dates before and after the event (Samcam murder), documenting communications between some of the suspected perpetrators of the homicide and the CAI Jorge Arturo Montero Castro penal center,” the researchers conclude.
The suspects in the murder of Roberto Samcam are:
- Danilo José Chaves Medina, 35 years old.
- Bryan Steven Robles Salas, 23 years old.
- Luis Ricardo Orozco González, 33 years old.
- Luis Fernando Carvajal Fernández, 21 years old, identified as the gunman and material author of the crime.
The IMEI of the phone confiscated from Luis Orozco during his detention “reported at least 102 communications” with the “La Reforma” prison between April 2, 2025 and July 7, 2025, according to the document.
Likewise, the device linked to Bryan Robles recorded calls to numbers from the same prison in the days before and after the murder of the former Nicaraguan military officer, on June 19, 2025.
The extension report documents that Luis Orozco coincided with Keny Navarrete in 2024 in the same prison, although in different areas. This coincidence opens the possibility that they knew each other or established contacts within the prison system.
Investigators point out that the Nicaraguan detailed in his arrest record that he resided in Guadalupe de Goicoechea, a district adjacent to Moravia, where Roberto Samcam lived and was executed. In addition, the authorities indicate that this location is also close to León XIII, in Tibás, place of origin of the suspectswhich reinforces the lines of investigation into possible links between the detainee and the structure that would have participated in the murder.
“Through the analysis of the information obtained, and the preliminary information visible on the suspects’ devices, it is possible to establish that Bryan Robles, Danilo Chaves and Luis Carvajal, continually participate in criminal activities, being part of a group dedicated to the theft of commercial establishments, vehicles, assault on homes and violent acts, such as the one investigated in the present case, in exchange for financial remuneration, in the vast majority of cases on request,” the OIJ investigators determined.
Samcam warned about Keny Navarrete
According to the judicial file, the figure of Keny Navarrete does not arise incidentally. On the contrary, his name was provided by Roberto Samcam to an agent – identified as “Wilber” – from the Directorate of Intelligence and National Security (DIS), a police unit attached to the Ministry of the Presidency of Costa Rica.
The OIJ analyzed Samcam’s electronic devices—computer and cell phone—and found the communications via WhatsApp that the former military man had with the agent, whom he had recorded under the name “Wilber DIS.” The judicial body confirmed that “Wilber”’s telephone number is registered in the name of the Ministry of the Presidency.
In a conversation in January 2024, Samcam informed the agent: “The boy friend gave me the name of the guy who pulls the strings from the Alajuela prison, he is from Diriamba named KENY NAVARRETE.”
According to the judicial expansion report 87-SH/RCI-2025, the former military man told the DIS officer that Navarrete was not acting on his own account, but rather as a logistical link between the Nicaraguan security apparatus and groups of hitmen in Costa Rican territory.
This warning, however, was not conveyed to the OIJ at the time, despite the fact that it was part of communications between the offended party and intelligence authorities.
Roberto Samcam described the alleged modus operandi to Costa Rican intelligence:
- The territories define the objectives. This refers to the fact that local “representatives” in Nicaragua select the “targets” to assassinate. The former military man detailed the case of Carazo, where some opponents who were murdered or suffered attacks in Costa Rica come from, including Samcam himself, Rodolfo Rojas and Joao Maldonado.
- Once the “objectives” have been established, the names are communicated to the DID (Directorate of Information for the Defense of the Nicaraguan National Army), where they “authorize the action.”
- After obtaining approval, the execution is entrusted to operational groups, among which Samcam points out to “paramilitaries known as Los Colochos,” who operate in Carazo.
- These paramilitaries contact Kenny Navarrete, who from prison controls “a network of hitmen in different provinces who are in charge of attacking opponents.”
“Los Colochos” of Diriamba
The investigators highlight that the information provided by the former military man is consistent with publications and interviews in which he denounced the existence of a Nicaraguan intelligence network in Costa Ricawhose objective was to locate and assassinate political opponents.
In his private investigations, Samcam directly linked Keny Navarrete with the parastatal group known as “Los Colochos”, a group made up of a family with the surname Narváez López, residents in Diriamba.
According to confidential sources—cited in the court file—this family “is part of an alleged parastatal structure coordinated by the Sandinista National Liberation Front… who participated in the repression in Carazo during the events of 2018.”
Members of “Los Colochos” led the Ortega mobs that, on July 9, 2018, They attacked and robbed bishops, human rights defenders and journalists, in the Minor Basilica of San Sebastián, in Diriamba.
In addition, the list of authorized visits to Keny Navarrete includes people who reside in the same neighborhood as the members of “Los Colochos,” according to the document.
The political hypotheses of the research
The 224-page OIJ report contains background information on Samcam’s professional and political activities in Nicaragua, and the death threats that forced him to go into exile in Costa Rica on July 11, 2018, three days after the execution of the “cleanup operation” in Carazo.
Likewise, it includes documents and investigations carried out by the former military officer on the participation of the Nicaraguan Army in the repression during and after the 2018 crisis, on its alleged connection with drug trafficking, and even on a proposal for the creation of a provisional government in exile.
In addition, it contains statements from witnesses who participated with Samcam in some of these investigations, and from other protected, unidentified witnesses, who present to the OIJ different hypotheses about the possible political motives that led to the dictatorship Nicaraguan to order and plan the murder of the Nicaraguan.
Sources linked to the investigation revealed to CONFIDENTIAL that “the OIJ is investigating multiple political leads regarding Samcam’s murder, which are linked to the persecution of the Nicaraguan dictatorship against him and other opposition members who have taken refuge in Costa Rica,” but the file is not conclusive.
“It is up to the prosecutor to present the accusation against the material authors of the murder, possibly before the month of September, and there is abundant evidence that it is a commissioned crime, presumably ordered from Nicaragua for political reasons, but only the prosecutor can determine, in her accusation, the scope of the political motives that the OIJ is investigating,” the source indicated.
