Latin American drug kingpin wanted by U.S. is arrested in Bolivia

Crime Top Latin American drug kingpin wanted by U.S. is arrested in Bolivia, put on American plane March 13, 2026 / 2:01 PM EDT / CBS/AFP Add CBS News on Google Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to U.S. authorities after his arrest Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the U.S.' most-wanted fugitives list , was passed to agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport, then put on a U.S. airplane, state television showed. "The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the U.S. justice system," Marco Antonio Oviedo, a senior minister, told reporters. The kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa Cruz, Bolivia's economic capital, in an operation that mobilized hundreds of police officers, an AFP journalist witnessed. Four other people were arrested in the raids, which come days after Bolivia and 16 other countries joined an anti-cartel military alliance launched by President Trump. Marset, who is the most notorious drug baron in the southern part of South America, had a $2 million U.S. bounty on his head for alleged money laundering. An indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia , alleges Marset "leads a large-scale drug trafficking organization that is believed to be responsible for moving ton quantities of cocaine from South America to Europe, while generating tens of millions in cash and proceeds," according to the DEA . The soccer-loving 34-year-old laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring lower-level professional soccer teams across Latin America and Europe and even put himself in the starting lineups. He was imprisoned in his native Uruguay for drug trafficking between 2013 and 2018 and later moved around South America, living for a time in Bolivia and also Paraguay. Both those countries had also issued warrants for his arrest. The United States issued ...