Panama Cops: Americans Would Befriend Victims, Then Rob and Kill

[Jeff Dunsavage]

Important story on CNN.com about the two American nutjobs who were killing ex-pat property owners in Panama and just taking over their properties (according to one of the blogs I read, they had a local lawyer taking care of the paperwork). The couple was caught in Nicaragua a few weeks ago, after a detour through Costa Rica. This region attracts all kinds -- the hopeful looking for opportunities in "paradise" and the creepy opportunists seeking to take advantage of the general chaos, corruption, and lack of transparency or investigative infrastructure.

"He has confessed," prosecutor Angel Calderon told CNN. "The main thing is that he said that once he contacted them, he would study them and would determine what class of people they were in the sense of having money, property. He would become their friend, learning very personal details."

I'm glad they caught these two scumbags.

Please be careful when you travel (and when you don't).