Andean Group - April 2026

Sebastián Marset, the alleged leader of the Primer Cartel Uruguayo (PCU), was arrested in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz on 13 March. His capture and extradition to the US marks an early boost for President Rodrigo Paz, who has pledged to make counter-narcotics a top priority and a core plank of a new, Washington-oriented foreign policy. Marset is accused of being a central player in the trafficking of cocaine to Europe, working alongside international criminal partners such as Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), the Insfrán clan in Paraguay, and the Italian ‘Ndrangheta.

Marset, the self-styled ‘King of the South’ – a slogan which was stamped on bricks of cocaine he is accused of trafficking – is a Uruguayan citizen but appears to have been based out of Bolivia in recent years. The PCU, which originated in Uruguay, is also active in Paraguay, Brazil, Portugal, and the Netherlands, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which claimed in a 16 March statement that Marset is “the leader of a large-scale drug trafficking organisation that distributed thousands of kilograms of cocaine” and used US financial institutions to launder drug proceeds.

Marset is also accused by authorities in Colombia and Paraguay of ordering the May 2022 assassination of Marcelo Pecci, Paraguay’s special prosecutor against organised crime who was gunned down while honeymooning on Colombia’s Caribbean coast [SSR-22-06]. Pecci was a leading figure in ‘A Ultranza Py’, Paraguay’s largest ever counter-narcotics operation, which was launched in February 2022 and in which Marset was a key target.

Having evaded an attempt to arrest him in Santa Cruz back in July 2023, which Marset claimed on social media that he was warned of by a high-level informant in Bolivia’s counter-narcotics agency (FELCN), the authorities took no chances the second time round. Police established a security cordon across a wide area of the Las Palmas neighbourhood of the city, imposing controls on movement as raids were carried out at various locations before Marset was arrested. Within hours he was extradited to the US, where he was arraigned in a Virginia courtroom on charges of laundering drug money on 17 March.

There was potential for a tussle over Marset’s extradition, given that he is also sought by Paraguay in relation to Pecci’s murder, and in his home country of Uruguay. However, although Paraguay’s Attorney General Emiliano Rolón did say that Marset might be sought by Paraguay, the country’s interior minister, Enrique Riera, said subsequently that the country in which Marset is detained matters less than the fact that he faces justice for his alleged crimes.

Uruguay’s President Yamandú Orsi seemed similarly relaxed about his country’s failure to secure Marset’s extradition, saying that “let’s not forget that Paraguay had the strongest claim, and also the US, and Bolivia of course – us too, but perhaps with less urgency as he didn’t face such serious charges here as in other countries”.

Paz signals new era in Bolivian counter-narcotics

President Paz claimed that Marset’s capture epitomises a hardening stance against drug trafficking since he took office in November last year. Describing the alleged PCU leader as “one of the biggest drug traffickers on the continent”, Paz said that his arrest “must be the most important security development since our democratic era began [in 1982]”. It comes as Paz is seeking to establish Bolivia as an important security partner to Washington, which has seen him sign up to the new US-led Shield of the Americas security initiative.

In a major turnaround in US-Bolivia relations, Interior Minister Marco Oviedo said on 23 February that the DEA is active in Bolivia for the first time since 2008, when it was expelled by former president Evo Morales (2006-2019). Oviedo did not go into detail and said that “just as the DEA is now present, we also have cooperation from European intelligence and police bodies… We want neighbouring countries’ counter-narcotics agencies on board as well”.

Former counter-narcotics chief sentenced in US

Maximiliano Dávila, who served as head of Bolivia’s counter-narcotics agency (FELCN) during the final months of Morales’ presidency in 2019, was sentenced on 19 March to 25 years in prison in the US on drug trafficking and weapons charges. He was accused of importing cocaine into the US, with the Department of Justice stating that his “methods included both diverting law enforcement from investigating favored cocaine traffickers and providing heavily armed FELCN personnel as security for cocaine shipments leaving Bolivian airports.”

      Dávila’s conviction is just the latest embarrassment for the FELCN, where several former leaders have been accused of colluding with drug traffickers [SSR-25-01]. One of Dávila’s predecessors as head of the agency, René Sanabria (2008-2009), is serving a 10-year prison sentence handed down by a Bolivian court in 2022, after he was repatriated at the end of an 11-year sentence in the US for drug trafficking. Another former FELCN head, José María Velasco (2020-2022), was fired by former president Luis Arce (2020-2025) following allegations that he obstructed counter-narcotics operations in Cochabamba department.

Blaming the MAS

The Paz administration has accused the left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) governments of Evo Morales (2006-2019) and Luis Arce (2020-2025) of turning a blind eye to drug trafficking, arguing that a years-long failure to keep coca cultivation under the 22,000-hectare legal limit has created opportunities for criminal groups [SSR-26-01]. Interior Minister Marco Oviedo claimed on 13 March that “Marset used Bolivia as a base because he found impunity and protection here under the previous government”.