Costa Rica’s former deputy minister for public security, three other men and two entities, including a football club, were sanctioned Monday by the U.S. Treasury Department for allegedly trafficking narcotics to the United States and money laundering. File photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned four Costa Rican men and two entities for allegedly trafficking narcotics to the United States and money laundering as part of an effort to disrupt criminal cartels that have turned the Central American nation into a global cocaine hub.
The sanctions, issued Monday against Celso Manuel Gamboa Sanchez, Edwin Danney Lopez Vega, Alejandro Antonio James Wilson and Alejandro Arias Monge under a Biden-era executive order, followed a joint investigation involving the Drug Enforcement Agency in the United States and Costa Rica and Costa Rican authorities.
Gamboa and Lopez are in prison awaiting extradition to the United States after Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles enacted a constitutional amendment in May permitting the extradition of Costa Rican nationals accused of drug trafficking and terrorism.
Authorities allege former vice-minister for public security Gamboa was a major drug trafficker in Costa Rica, facilitating the shipment of cocaine worth tens of millions of dollars from Colombia through Costa Rica to the United States and Europe.
Gamboa allegedly abused his position to gather intel about ongoing counternarcotics investigations and sold it to those being targeted.
Lopez was allegedly an associate of Gamboa who helped him launder drug money and was the only known source of supply for Arias, Costa Rica’s most wanted fugitive.
Aria is accused of drug trafficking, robberies, and homicides throughout the country’s eastern Limon province, with a $500,000 State Department bounty for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
Gamboa and Lopez face 10 years to life imprisonment in a federal jail if convicted.
The Treasury alleges James was engaged in drug trafficking and, working with Gamboa, paid off corrupt police and port officials in order to smuggle Colombian cocaine to the United States and Europe via Costa Rica’s Moin container terminal.
Also sanctioned were a front company owned by Gamboa and Limon Black Star Football Club, allegedly used by Gamboa to launder money.
Treasury said that as a key cocaine transshipment hub, Costa Rica had become an “increasingly significant waypoint” for criminal groups trafficking cocaine into the United States, where cocaine was responsible for 22,000 overdose deaths in the 12 months to October.
“Drug cartels are poisoning Americans and making our communities more dangerous by trafficking cocaine, often laced with fentanyl, into the United States,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley.
“The sanctions target key drug smugglers involved in transporting drugs into the United States. Treasury, in close coordination with U.S. law enforcement and our Costa Rican partners, will continue to use all available tools to disrupt narcotrafficking organizations that threaten the safety of Americans.”
Costa Rica was seeing rising rates of organized crime-fueled violence resulting from gangs vying for control of drug trafficking routes and turf, with 2024 was the second-most violent year on record, Treasury said, with 2025 on track for similarly grim statistics.
Much of the violence is centered on the eastern Limon region, which recorded the highest homicide rate in the country in 2024, rising dramatically in the six years since the Moin port opened, as criminal groups battle for control of the terminal in order to smuggle cocaine out of the country aboard departing container ships.
The sanctions freeze all wholly or majority-owned U.S. property and interests in property of individuals and businesses, or those held or controlled by Americans, which must be reported to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Financial institutions or any person are also banned from granting any financial assistance or providing or receiving funds, goods, or services from the four men or the two entities, while foreign financial institutions that process any significant transaction on their behalf run the risk of OFAC secondary sanctions.
