How football fuels Paraguay’s drug trade, the latest extradition request from Mexico to the US, and what the latest cocaine seizure in El Salvador reveals are the focus of this week’s roundup of the main organized crime stories in Latin America.
Transcript
Deborah Bonello: What position does football play in Paraguay’s drug business?
What’s the significance of Mexico’s extradition request for a former governor?
And what does a 6-ton seizure of cocaine tell us about El Salvador?
Find out in this week’s On the Radar.
In Paraguay, football is more than just a sport – it’s a key player in laundering drug money. Recent arrests targeted former players and a manager who allegedly helped fugitive drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, the leader of the First Uruguayan Cartel, launder the proceeds of his international cocaine business.
Marset has been on the run for years. The arrests deepen our understanding of how organized crime has co-opted parts of the country’s sporting world.
On to Mexico, which has requested the extradition of Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, a former governor of Tamaulipas, to face charges of money laundering, embezzlement, and ties to organized crime.
The ask from Mexico is a reminder of the state of Tamaulipas’s tradition of corrupt governors, of which Garcia Cabeza de Vaca is allegedly the latest in a long line. Tamaulipas shares a border with the US state of Texas and is hotly contested by different criminal groups. Some of Mexico’s darkest episodes of violence have taken place there, and criminal governance is deeply embedded in state institutions.
Finally, in El Salvador, a 6.6 ton drug bust that President Nayib Bukele described as historic. Seized from a Tanzanian-flagged vessel off the Pacific coast, it highlights the ongoing importance of drug-smuggling routes in Pacific waters. The seizure also highlights Bukele’s willingness to play ball with the Trump administration in the United States, which is applying unprecedented pressure on nations in the region to crack down on the drug business.
Don’t miss InSight Crime’s in-depth profile of Sebestian Marset, Mexico’s drug trade, and El Salvador’s criminal challenges, as well as much, much more, on InSightCrime.org. That’s it for this week – thanks for watching.