Bolivia's attorney general arrested on drug trafficking charges following US sanctions
Roger Mariaca, Bolivia's attorney general, was arrested in Santa Cruz on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, two days after Washington revoked his visa.
Arrest of Bolivian attorney general on links to narcotics
Bolivian authorities detained attorney general Roger Mariaca in the city of Santa Cruz on Wednesday, two days after the United States revoked his visa over alleged links to criminal organisations, according to 24-horas.mx.
Along with Mariaca, Alberto Zeballos, attorney for the Santa Cruz jurisdiction, was also arrested, having been previously sanctioned by Washington. Both face charges of criminal organisation, money laundering and drug trafficking, accusations which Mariaca denies.
"We have dismantled a criminal organisation entrenched in the justice system," declared Marco Antonio Oviedo, minister of government, at a press conference. Oviedo added that the Attorney General's Office, under Mariaca's leadership, had become a "criminal organisation designed to encourage and protect narcoterrorism".
On Monday, the United States revoked the visas of Mariaca along with those of judges, senior officials and businesspeople from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, whom it accuses of corruption, links to drug trafficking or of conspiring against their respective governments.
Early in the year, Bolivia joined the Shield of the Americas, the alliance of right-wing governments promoted by the Donald Trump administration to combat transnational organised crime. The 15 member countries of the initiative issued a joint statement on Thursday in which they "congratulate the Bolivian government on its decisive measures to tackle drug trafficking" and urge it to "continue investigating and prosecuting these networks judicially".
Source: Google News BO — Crime