Costa Rica's former deputy minister for public security, three other men and two entities, including a football club, were sanctioned Monday by the U.S. Treasury Department for allegedly trafficking narcotics to the United States and money laundering. File photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned four Costa Rican men and two entities for allegedly trafficking narcotics to the United States and money laundering as part of an effort to disrupt criminal cartels that have turned the Central American nation into a global cocaine hub.
The sanctions, issued Monday against Celso Manuel Gamboa Sanchez, Edwin Danney Lopez Vega, Alejandro Antonio James Wilson and Alejandro Arias Monge under a Biden-era executive order, followed a joint investigation involving the Drug Enforcement Agency in the United States and Costa Rica and Costa Rican authorities.
Gamboa and Lopez are in prison awaiting extradition to the United States after Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles enacted a constitutional amendment in May permitting the extradition of Costa Rican nationals accused of drug trafficking and terrorism.
Authorities allege former vice-minister for public security Gamboa was a major drug trafficker in Costa Rica, facilitating the shipment of cocaine worth tens of millions of dollars from Colombia through Costa Rica to the United States and Europe.
