Bolivia will extradite Maximiliano Dávila, former anti-drug chief accused of links to drug trafficking, to the United States

The Supreme Court of Justice of Bolivia endorsed the extradition to the United States of Maximiliano Dávilawho was director of the anti-drug trafficking agency during the former president’s government Evo Morales.

The former anti-drug chief He was arrested in January 2022 while trying to cross into Argentina. He faces serious accusations for trafficking in controlled substances and for managing weapons linked to drug trafficking, according to TelesurTV.

At the end of September of this year, the extradition request was presented, and it was finally authorized, said Marco Jaimes, president of the Supreme Court of Justice.

“Once we are notified to the Ministry of Government and the Penitentiary Regime Directorate, we will comply with the consular procedures in the United States and we will proceed with the extradition according to the norm”said Eduardo Del Castillo, Minister of the Government of Bolivia.

Dávila, who remains imprisoned in the San Pedro prison, in La Paz, is being prosecuted for the crime of legitimation of illicit profits, the penalty for which is five to 10 years in prison, however, “it has no relevance” to the possible sentence that be imposed on him in the Southern District Court of the State of New York.

Dávila is required by Justice due to a DEA investigation carried out between 2019 and 2020, which determined that was part of a network that exported refined cocaine to the United States.

According to a DEA agent who operated undercover, the accused and former Police Major Omar Rojas “used their official positions and connections to obtain access to Bolivian airfields in order to facilitate cocaine shipments” and “organize protection by law enforcement.”

One of the crimes for which he is required in the United States is criminal association for the handling of weapons related to drug trafficking, which has a sentence of 10 to 20 years of confinement.

According to the newspaper El País, this will be the first extradition of a Bolivian to the US in the two decades of Movement towards Socialism (MAS) governments, since the US ambassador was expelled from Bolivia in 2008.

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