Costa Rica sends top drug trafficker, fellow cartel member to U.S.
Gilbert Bell Fernandez thanked the U.S. for taking him out of Costa Rica, claiming he had been mistreated in prison.
San Jose extradited one of Costa Rica's top drug traffickers and a fellow cartel member to the United States on Thursday to stand trial in federal court, authorities said.
Costa Rican businessman Gilbert Bell Fernandez, known as "Macho Coca," and Colombian Gabriel Lozano Bonilla, known as "Compadre," were flown from Juan Santa Maria International Airport, northwest of San Jose, to New York.
Bell Fernandez, 63, is considered one of the biggest drug traffickers in Costa Rica by the U.S. Treasury Department, which says he is "known not only for the volume of drugs he moves but the violence with which he operates."
Bell Fernandez was placed on its sanctions list in 2023.
"The DEA links them to the Gulf Clan," Costa Rican Attorney General Carlo Diaz told reporters, referring to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Both men allegedly took part in trafficking cocaine to the U.S. for the Colombian cartel, which Washington has labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization.