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Nicaraguan national Keny Hosman Navarrete Vallecillo, originally from Diriamba, Carazo, has been identified as the alleged person who coordinated the assassination of retired Nicaraguan Army Major Roberto Samcam Ruiz with Costa Rican hitmen, according to a follow-up investigative report by Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ).
The document, dated March 6, 2026, and obtained by CONFIDENCIAL, states that “the perpetrators of the homicide carried out the execution of Mr. Roberto Samcam in exchange for money, coordinating the operation under a possible order from inmate Keny Hosman Navarrete Vallecillo.”
The 38-year-old Nicaraguan, known by the alias “Chatel,” has been serving a sentence since 2016 for aggravated robbery, unlawful detention, and handling stolen goods. He is being held in cellblock 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 search of Navarrete’s cell, OIJ investigators found evidence suggesting a level of wealth and financial management considered “unusual” for a construction worker or driver—the occupations the Nicaraguan claimed to have. Among his belongings, authorities found a notebook with bank account notes referencing “$16,700 and 4,100 million.” The latter refers to millions of colones, which at the official exchange rate would exceed $9,110.
Authorities say these findings suggest the “distribution of funds from some irregular activity.”
Communications Prior To Samcam’s Killing
“Based on the phone data obtained so far, it has been determined that there is a large number of calls on dates before and after the incident (Samcam’s murder), documenting communications between some of the suspected perpetrators of the homicide and the CAI Jorge Arturo Montero Castro prison,” investigators concluded.
The suspects in Roberto Samcam’s killing are:
- Danilo José Chaves Medina, 35
- Bryan Steven Robles Salas, 23
- Luis Ricardo Orozco González, 33
- Luis Fernando Carvajal Fernández, 21, identified as the gunman and direct perpetrator of the crime
The IMEI of the phone seized from Luis Orozco during his arrest “recorded at least 102 communications” with La Reforma prison between April 2, 2025, and July 7, 2025, according to the document.
Similarly, the device linked to Bryan Robles recorded calls to numbers from the same prison in the days before and after the murder of the retired Nicaraguan military officer on June 19, 2025.
The expanded report documents that Luis Orozco was in the same prison as Keny Navarrete in 2024, although in different units. This overlap raises the possibility that they met or established contacts within the prison system.
Investigators note that, in his arrest record, the Nicaraguan stated that he resided in Guadalupe de Goicoechea, a district bordering Moravia, where Roberto Samcam lived and was killed. Authorities also indicate that this location is close to León XIII, in Tibás, the area where the suspects are from, which reinforces investigative lines pointing to possible links between the detainee and the structure allegedly involved in the assassination.
“Through the analysis of the information obtained, as well as preliminary data visible on the suspects’ devices, it has been established that Bryan Robles, Danilo Chaves, and Luis Carvajal are regularly involved in criminal activities, forming part of a group dedicated to robbing commercial establishments, vehicles, home invasions, and violent acts such as the one under investigation in this case, generally in exchange for payment and, in most cases, on commission,” OIJ investigators concluded.
Samcam Had Warned About Keny Navarrete
According to the judicial file, the figure of Keny Navarrete did not emerge 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 body attached to Costa Rica’s Ministry of the Presidency.
The OIJ analyzed Samcam’s electronic devices — computer and cellphone — and found WhatsApp communications between the former military officer and the agent, whom he had saved under the name “Wilber DIS.” The judicial agency confirmed that the phone number used by “Wilber” is registered to the Ministry of the Presidency.
In a conversation in January 2024, Samcam told the agent: “A friend gave me the name of the guy who pulls the strings from the prison in Alajuela. He’s from Diriamba, his name is KENY NAVARRETE.”
According to expanded judicial report 87-SH/RCI-2025, the former military officer told the DIS official that Navarrete did not act independently, but rather as a logistical link between Nicaragua’s security apparatus and hitmen operating in Costa Rican territory.
However, this warning was not passed on to the OIJ at the time, despite being part of communications between the victim and intelligence authorities.
Roberto Samcam described the alleged modus operandi to Costa Rican intelligence:
- Territories define the targets. This refers to local “representatives” in Nicaragua selecting individuals to be assassinated. The former military officer cited the case of Carazo, where several opposition figures targeted in Costa Rica originated, including Samcam himself, Rodolfo Rojas, and Joao Maldonado.
- Once targets are identified, the names are communicated to the DID (Directorate of Information for Defense of the Nicaraguan Army), where “the operation is authorized.”
- After approval is obtained, execution is assigned to operational groups, including what Samcam described as “paramilitaries known as Los Colochos,” operating in Carazo.
- These paramilitaries then contact Keny Navarrete, who from prison controls “a network of hitmen across different provinces responsible for carrying out attacks against opposition figures.”
“Los Colochos” Of Diriamba
Investigators highlight that the information provided by the former military officer aligns with publications and interviews in which he denounced the existence of a Nicaraguan intelligence network in Costa Rica aimed at locating and assassinating political opponents.
In his own investigations, Samcam directly linked Keny Navarrete to the para-state group known as “Los Colochos,” a group made up of a family with the last name Narváez López, based in Diriamba.
According to confidential sources — cited in the judicial file — this family “is part of an alleged para-state structure coordinated by the Sandinista National Liberation Front… whose members participated in the repression in Carazo during the events of 2018.”
Members of “Los Colochos” led pro-Ortega mobs that, on July 9, 2018, assaulted and robbed bishops, human rights defenders, and journalists at the Minor Basilica of San Sebastián in Diriamba.
Additionally, the list of authorized visitors to Keny Navarrete includes individuals who live in the same neighborhood as members of “Los Colochos,” according to the document.
The Political Hypotheses Of The Investigation
The 224-page OIJ report includes background on Samcam’s professional and political activities in Nicaragua, as well as the death threats that forced him into exile in Costa Rica on July 11, 2018, three days after the execution of the “clean-up operation” in Carazo.
It also contains documents and investigations carried out by the former military officer regarding the role of the Nicaraguan Army in the repression during and after the 2018 crisis, its alleged links to drug trafficking, and even a proposal for the creation of a provisional government in exile.
In addition, the report includes statements from witnesses who worked with Samcam on some of these investigations, as well as from other protected, unidentified witnesses who present the OIJ with different hypotheses about the possible political motives that led the Nicaraguan regime to order and plan the assassination.
Sources linked to the investigation told CONFIDENCIAL that “the OIJ is examining multiple politically related leads in Samcam’s murder, connected to the Nicaraguan regime’s persecution of him and other opposition figures who sought refuge in Costa Rica.” However, the case file is not yet conclusive.
“It is up to the prosecutor to file charges against the material perpetrators of the murder, possibly before September. There is substantial evidence that this was a contract killing, allegedly ordered from Nicaragua for political reasons, but only the prosecutor can determine, in the indictment, the scope of the political motives being investigated by the OIJ,” the source said.
