Former Costa Rican government official and fellow drug trafficker extradited to the Eastern District of Texas to face international drug trafficking charges

PLANO, Texas - Two Costa Rican national, including a former government official, have been extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking charges in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.

Celso Manuel Gamboa Sanchez, 49, and Edwin Danney Lopez-Vega, also 49, were extradited from Costa Rica to the United States on March 20, 2026, after being charged in separate indictments in the Eastern District of Texas with drug trafficking violations. Gamboa Sanchez and Lopez-Vega are the first Costa Rican nationals extradited to the United States since Costa Rica reformed its constitution in May 2025 to allow for the extradition of Costa Rican nationals for drug trafficking offenses.

On June 23, 2025, Costa Rican police arrested Links to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link.Gamboa Sanchez, a former Costa Rican government official and judge, and Lopez-Vega on drug trafficking charges filed in the United States. Prior to his arrest, Gamboa Sanchez was a major drug trafficker in Costa Rica and had facilitated the shipment of tens of millions of dollars' worth of cocaine from Colombia through Costa Rica to the United States and Europe. Gamboa Sanchez was indicted on July 9, 2025, and charged with conspiring with other international drug traffickers to manufacture, distribute, and transport significant quantities of cocaine, much of which was trafficked through Costa Rica and ultimately into the United States for further distribution. Gamboa Sanchez has held several governmental positions in Costa Rica, including Minister of Public Security in 2014, a position charged with overseeing crime prevention in the country, and judge from 2016 to 2018.

In a separate indictment, Lopez-Vega was charged on June 11, 2025, with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine knowing it would be imported into the United States. The two-count indictment alleges that beginning in 2008, Lopez-Vega was involved in a conspiracy to traffic cocaine not only to the United States, but to countries throughout South, Central, and North America, including Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Mexico.

The defendants are set for initial appearances in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas on March 24, 2026.

These cases are part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum penalty of life in federal prison.

These cases are being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Dallas Field Division, FBI, and DEA San Jose Country Office. These cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Wes Wynne.

The Justice Department extends its gratitude to the Governments of Costa Rica, the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic of Costa Rica's Office of Technical Assistance and International Relations, and its prosecutorial and law enforcement authorities for making the extradition possible. The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica provided significant assistance in securing the defendants' arrest and extraditions from Costa Rica.

A federal indictment is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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