One of the most wanted drug kingpins in South America, Sebastian Enrique Marset Cabrera, has been arrested in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, after a morning raid involving hundreds of police officers.
Following Marset’s capture on Friday, Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz celebrated the arrest as a milestone in the fight against drug trafficking on the continent.
“One of the drug traffickers and criminals considered among the four biggest on the continent has fallen,” Paz said during a news conference in La Paz, Bolivia.
“The capture of Mr Marset marks a turning point in the fight against organised crime, and it also reaffirms the government’s determination to confront international and domestic mafias.”
Paz’s leadership is part of a trend in South America, which has seen longtime left-leaning governments flounder in recent elections, in favour of right-wing alternatives.
Marset’s arrest also coincides with a renewed push from the United States to more aggressively address drug trafficking across the Western Hemisphere.
Paz’s nascent government has demonstrated a willingness to partner with the US on those efforts.
Paz was sworn into office in November, ending nearly 20 years of leadership from Bolivia’s Movement for Socialism (MAS), and in late February, his government reinstated ties with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) after a rupture in 2008.
US President Donald Trump recently hosted Paz and other right-wing leaders from Latin America at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida to discuss shared efforts to combat drug cartels and other criminal networks.
