{"id":5579,"date":"2026-03-21T01:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/ex-minister-gamboa-targeted-in-costa-ricas-first-extradition-to-the-us\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T01:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:36:33","slug":"ex-minister-gamboa-targeted-in-costa-ricas-first-extradition-to-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/ex-minister-gamboa-targeted-in-costa-ricas-first-extradition-to-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-minister Gamboa targeted in Costa Rica\u2019s first extradition to the US"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>For the first time in recent history, Costa Rica has extradited some of its citizens to the United States to face criminal drug-trafficking and conspiracy charges.<\/p>\n<p>The individuals included in Friday\u2019s extradition include a top government official, Celso Gamboa, 49, who previously served as a Supreme Court justice from 2016 to 2018 and a deputy attorney general from 2015 to 2016.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/1\/what-to-know-about-costa-ricas-presidential-election\">A vote for continuity? What to know for Costa Rica\u2019s presidential election<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/2\/laura-fernandez-leads-early-results-in-costa-ricas-presidential-election\">Right-wing candidate declares victory in Costa Rica\u2019s presidential election<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/2\/2\/right-wing-candidate-fernandez-declares-victory-in-costa-rica\">Right wing candidate Fernandez declares victory in Costa Rica<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The administration of Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles hailed the extraditions as a major step in ensuring criminal justice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCosta Rica is sending a strong message: no one can use our nationality to evade justice,\u201d Attorney General Carlo Diaz said in a video message.<\/p>\n<p>Diaz acknowledged that \u201chigh-profile individuals\u201d were included in the inaugural extradition. \u201cThis is a historic day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, the Constitution of Costa Rica banned the extradition of its citizens for prosecution abroad.<\/p>\n<p>But that changed in 2025 with a constitutional amendment championed by the Chaves government. Costa Rica\u2019s legislature passed the amendment with 44 votes in support, out of a total of 57 deputies.<\/p>\n<p>Proponents have argued that the change was needed to combat growing crime in the country and that corruption in the judicial system made the pursuit of justice difficult.<\/p>\n<p>But critics have argued that extradition is a hardline tactic that fails to address the root causes of crime, while subjecting citizens to foreign laws.<\/p>\n<p>The amendment is tailored to extraditing only suspects accused of drug-trafficking and \u201cterrorism\u201d, specifically.<\/p>\n<p>It also sets conditions on extraditions: Suspects cannot be sent abroad to face the death penalty or sentences of more than 50 years\u2019 imprisonment, the maximum allowed under Costa Rican law.<\/p>\n<p>The amendment is part of a broader, regional trend of aggressive tactics to combat organised crime in Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2024, Ecuador likewise approved an amendment \u2014 in its case, through a voter referendum \u2014 to allow extraditions of citizens to countries like the US. In July 2025, the US <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/USDOJ_Intl\/status\/1947317679141880060\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">confirmed<\/a> it had received its first extradition from the country since the amendment took effect.<\/p>\n<p>Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa praised the measure as offering officials \u201cmore tools to fight crime\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s inaugural extradition from Costa Rica, meanwhile, involved Gamboa and his alleged co-conspirator Edwin Lopez Vega, a suspected drug trafficker known by the nickname \u201cPecho de Rata\u201d or \u201cRat\u2019s Chest\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Both men were placed in handcuffs on a Texas-bound plane at the Juan Santamaria International Airport in the Costa Rican capital San Jose. Gamboa and Lopez Vega were arrested on the same day.<\/p>\n<p>Chaves Robles has accused Gamboa of representing \u201cthe tip of the iceberg\u201d in terms of corruption in the political system.<\/p>\n<p>But Gamboa has said the accusations against him were made in \u201cbad faith\u201d and that he plans to testify against other government figures if his safety and that of his family are not ensured.<\/p>\n<p>Before serving as a judge and prosecutor, Gamboa had high-level roles in several presidential administrations.<\/p>\n<p>Under President Laura Chinchilla, he served as the director of intelligence and national security, and under President Luis Guillermo Solis, he was the minister of public security.<\/p>\n<p>But in 2024, a provisional warrant was issued for his arrest in the eastern district of Texas, and on June 23, 2025, Gamboa was arrested.<\/p>\n<p>In a federal indictment in July of that year, the US government announced it would be charging Gamboa with manufacturing and distributing cocaine destined for the US, as well as related conspiracy charges.<\/p>\n<p>The US Department of Justice said Gamboa worked with Lopez Vega to assist international drug trafficking operations. Both men were sanctioned by the US Treasury the following month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGamboa used his extensive network of contacts within the government to acquire information about ongoing counternarcotics investigations,\u201d the Treasury <a href=\"https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/news\/press-releases\/sb0227\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">alleged<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe subsequently sold this information to the targets of those exact investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gamboa and Lopez Vega face a minimum of 10 years in prison in the US if convicted.<\/p>\n<p>Costa Rica has forged an increasingly close relationship with the US under President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>After Trump took office for a second term, Costa Rica became one of the first countries to accept US deportation flights carrying citizens of \u201cthird-party\u201d countries, as part of Trump\u2019s mass deportation push.<\/p>\n<p>This week, it also expelled Cuban diplomats from its borders, as part of a Trump-led pressure campaign against the Caribbean island.<\/p>\n<p>Costa Rican President Chaves recently joined other right-wing Latin American leaders at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/7\/theyre-a-cancer-trump-threatens-cartels-cuba-at-latin-american-summit\">for a security summit<\/a> on March 7.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in recent history, Costa Rica has extradited some of its citizens to the United States to face criminal drug-trafficking and conspiracy charges. The individuals included in Friday\u2019s extradition include a top government official, Celso Gamboa, 49, who previously served as a Supreme Court justice from 2016 to 2018 and a deputy &#8230; <a title=\"Ex-minister Gamboa targeted in Costa Rica\u2019s first extradition to the US\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/ex-minister-gamboa-targeted-in-costa-ricas-first-extradition-to-the-us\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Ex-minister Gamboa targeted in Costa Rica\u2019s first extradition to the US\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}