Police raid home of former minister Del Castillo in La Paz over alleged drug trafficking links
The FELCN searched the residence of former minister Eduardo del Castillo in Sopocachi without locating him. The case links senior officials to Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset.
Del Castillo remains at large following raid in Sopocachi
The Special Force for the Fight Against Drug Trafficking (FELCN) carried out a search of the home of former Government Minister Eduardo del Castillo, located in the La Paz neighbourhood of Sopocachi, on Sunday without managing to locate him. According to infobae.com, the operation is part of a broader investigation into alleged links to drug trafficking that has already resulted in the detention of the country's Attorney General, Róger Mariaca, and other senior judicial officials.
"Del Castillo remains at large. The Police are pursuing the former minister," declared Government Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo. The official noted that a video of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset implicates the former minister: in the images, Marset states that "they had a relationship" and that he "regularly delivered 500,000 dollars to him and former Attorney Mariaca," according to what was reported by Bolivian newspaper El Deber.
The Government maintains that it is seeking Del Castillo in order to continue investigations surrounding Marset and a "criminal organisation that operated from the Public Ministry to protect drug trafficking."
The Bolivian Public Ministry identifies in that alleged structure former Attorney General of the State Róger Mariaca, former departmental attorney for Santa Cruz Alberto Zeballos, former superior attorney and former lawyer for ex-president Evo Morales Martín Irusta, and Police Major Rubén Aparicio. All four are in preventive detention, under investigation for alleged criminal organisation and trafficking in controlled substances.
In parallel, the Public Ministry announced on Sunday the opening of a second case against Mariaca, this time related to the discovery of 3.5 million bolivianos and 10,000 dollars—approximately 270,000 euros in total—in an ambulance that left from his residence. Mariaca was already facing a previous case for drug trafficking.
Source: Google News BO — Crime