LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) 鈥 Bolivia's former anti-narcotics chief was extradited to the United States on Thursday to face federal drug trafficking charges in a New York court.
Authorities said that Maximiliano D谩vila, who served as anti-narcotics chief in the final months of 鈥 2006-2019 administration, helped facilitate planeload shipments of cocaine to the United States.
D谩vila boarded a private jet sent from the U.S. specifically for his extradition.
The U.S. State Department in 2022 announced a for information leading to D谩vila鈥檚 conviction. He is charged with conspiring to provide top level protection for cocaine shipments to the U.S. as well as related weapons charges involving the possession of machine guns.
In late November, Bolivia鈥檚 Supreme Court approved D谩vila's immediate extradition to the U.S. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Morales expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from Bolivia in 2008, accusing it of plotting to overthrow his government at a time rising commodity prices and a wave of leftist politics throughout South America were challenging longstanding U.S. influence in the region. Meanwhile, the two countries haven't exchanged ambassadors in more than 15 years.
The drug investigation that led to the charges against D谩vila was started by the DEA鈥檚 Special Operations Division in 2017, according to court records.
As part of the probe, criminal informants working under the DEA鈥檚 direction recorded conversations in which a co-defendant of D谩vila bragged of having access to an MD-11 military cargo plane to transport 60 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
The co-defendant, Percy Vasquez-Drew, said that 鈥渉e and other traffickers had been able to operate with impunity in Bolivia because the DEA and the CIA had been kicked out鈥 and remaining anti-drug officials in the country were easily bribed, prosecutors said in court filings.
Vasquez-Drew was later arrested in Panama on a U.S. warrant. He pleaded guilty in 2020 to a single count of conspiring to smuggle more than 450 kilograms of narcotics into the U.S. Earlier this year, his sentence was reduced to 100 months in federal prison.
Bolivia is the world鈥檚 third-largest producer of cocaine.
It鈥檚 unclear how close D谩vila is to Morales, a former coca grower. But the two appeared together in an October 2019 photograph celebrating Morales鈥 birthday standing next to several cakes decorated with coca leaves. Also in the picture was the former head of Bolivia鈥檚 national police.
While the DEA has arrested numerous Bolivian drug traffickers over the years, including one of D谩vila's predecessors, Morales himself has never been accused of drug trafficking. He has vociferously denounced the U.S.-led drug war in Latin America and defended traditional uses of coca 鈥 the raw ingredient of cocaine.
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