Latest news with #BureauofInternationalNarcoticsandLawEnforcementAffairs
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Scoop
Reward For Information Leading To Arrest And/Or Conviction Of Uruguayan Narcotics Trafficker And Money Launderer
MAY 21, 2025 Today, the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is announcing a reward offer under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) of up to $2 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction, in any country, of Uruguayan narcotics trafficker and money launderer Sebastian Marset. Concurrently, the Department of Justice announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging Marset with money laundering charges, stemming from the movement of drug proceeds through U.S. financial institutions. Marset is also a wanted fugitive throughout the Southern Cone of South America, charged with organized crime violations in Paraguay and Bolivia. In August 2023, Bolivian authorities announced a separate $100,000 reward offer for Marset's arrest. The TOCRP reward offer follows the largest and most consequential organized crime investigation (Operation A Ultranza Py) against cocaine trafficking in Paraguayan history. This investigation linked a criminal network led by Marset to more than 16 tons of cocaine seized in Europe, including an 11-ton seizure at the port of Antwerp in April 2021 and another 4.7-ton seizure of cocaine in Paraguay. The investigation was conducted in coordination with Paraguay's Special Investigative Unit and Anti-Drug Secretariat (SIU-SENAD), the Uruguayan Interior Ministry, Europol, and the DEA Asuncion Country Office. If you have information, please contact the DEA by email at MarsetTips@ If you are in the United States, you may also contact the local DEA office in your city. The United States is also soliciting anyone with direct knowledge of Marset's drug trafficking, money laundering, and acts of violence (actual or threatened) to contact the tipline. Today's reward offer is authorized by the Secretary under the TOCRP, which supports law enforcement efforts to disrupt transnational crime globally and bring fugitives to justice.
Scoop
04-05-2025
- Scoop
Reward Offer Of Up To $500,000 For Information Leading To Arrest And/or Conviction Of Most Wanted Fugitive In Costa Rica
April 30, 2025 Today, the Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is announcing a reward offer under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) of up to $500,000 for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction, in any country, of Alejandro Arias-Monge, a/k/a 'Diablo.' Arias is the head of a violent transnational criminal organization and the most wanted fugitive in Costa Rica. Arias has multiple Costa Rican warrants for drug trafficking, robbery, aggravated homicide, and money laundering. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Arias has conspired with numerous drug traffickers and Drug Trafficking Organizations to transport multi-hundred-kilogram loads of cocaine originating from Colombia. The cocaine is then smuggled through Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala to Mexico, with the ultimate destination being the United States. Arias' organization uses social media to intimidate Costa Rican citizens by posting images of firearms, threatening messages to the public and governmental leaders, and videos of murders. In addition, the DEA and Costa Rican authorities have identified criminal cells operated by Arias in all seven provinces of Costa Rica. Today's reward offers are authorized by the Secretary under the TOCRP, which supports law enforcement efforts to disrupt transnational crime globally. If you have information, please contact the DEA at +1-956-517-7023 (text/WhatsApp/Signal) or by email at CRInfo@ If you are located outside of the United States, you can also visit the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. If you are in the United States, you can also contact the local DEA field office.
Fox News
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
You've heard the US scrapped its drug-fighting programs. Here's the truth
In the international fight against illicit drugs, the perpetuation of programs has for decades been the U.S. government's own kind of addiction. That's why Secretary of State Marco Rubio chose to inspect the inventory. Now that his sweeping review is complete, projects, just like cargo containers at a port, are moving forward when they benefit America. Few, however, have been willing to acknowledge the merit to taking programs off autopilot. Instead, a mainstream media driven by clicks ran articles suggesting the Trump administration "stopped anti-fentanyl work in Mexico" and "brought crucial anti-narcotics programs to a screeching halt." Here's the truth. As soon as the foreign assistance pause and review began, the State Department moved rapidly to evaluate and greenlight critical programs. In the weeks since, almost 700 separate projects administered by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) have been reviewed, refined, and ultimately unlocked. Many of these are joint programs with the Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Customs and Border Protection, which obtain funding for their joint programs from the State Department. Most of these relate to narcotrafficking, but some funding equips foreign law enforcement officials to confront other threats no less important. In Latin America, projects proven to be effective that are now back online include targeting systems in Mexico and Peru that provide intelligence on foreign passengers and cargo, canine units in Costa Rica that sniff out drugs en route to the U.S., interceptor boats that interdict narcotics off the coast of Panama, biometric screening at Salvadoran airports to identify fliers with criminal backgrounds, and lab testing in the Dominican Republic to detect fentanyl. These come on top of the Trump administration's designation of significant drug cartels and criminal gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, and the deportation of criminal Tren de Aragua members It's ironic that the same outlets feigning concern are ones that, in the past, have lampooned America's War on Drugs as it is waged overseas. The Washington Post, for example, has claimed Republican policies have "deepened an impulse toward foreign intervention that has produced questionable results" and pointed out that "policymakers' attention on foreign bad guys and foreign drug flows did little to protect the country from opioids" and fentanyl. They can't have it both ways – attack Secretary Rubio's comprehensive assessment but also decry past efforts that, in a rush to "do something" and/or "do more" have not prevented tens of thousands of Americans from dying from drug overdoses year after year. Critics, therefore, would do well to ask the same basic questions Secretary Rubio is posing: Is it the United States' responsibility, from a moral perspective, to eliminate or at least erode the overseas actors fueling our domestic drug crisis? What roles do foreign governments play, what resources do they bring to bear, and what objectives can they not achieve absent U.S. aid? As our country's checkered history of foreign "capacity building" suggests, are training programs really ever capable – on their own – of "stopping" narcotraffickers who themselves possess tremendous financial resources, weaponry, and social caché? What type of equipment – or mentoring – actually facilitates cross-border investigations, prosecutions, and extraditions? It turns out that certain programs are virtually worthless when it comes to catching bad guys. That is why INL has terminated over half a billion dollars in grants and contracts since January 20. It is hard to justify Americans paying for "alternatives to incarceration" in the Indo-Pacific, courthouse furniture in rural South America, and law enforcement gender studies in Central Asia – especially when resources are finite, and evidence of a real impact, for the Trump administration, is paramount. In Secretary Rubio's view, we have to be honest with ourselves. In the past, certain programs functioned as their own kind of drug – as we patted ourselves on the back and felt better about "making a difference" globally. Now the decades-long high is finally wearing off – and reality is setting in. When it comes to counternarcotics, there are better and worse law enforcement programs. We will keep the good ones and cut the bad ones. Saving American money and saving American lives need not be in conflict.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Yahoo
Ryan Wedding, ex-Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug lord, added to FBI's 10 Most Wanted list with $10 million reward for arrest
Former Canadian snowboarder Ryan Wedding was named to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list on Friday with a $10 million reward announced for his arrest. The 43-year-old Wedding is wanted for allegedly running a drug trafficking network that shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine "from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and for orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder in furtherance of these drug crimes," said the FBI in a press release. Wedding's alleged partner in these crimes, 34-year-old Canadian national Andrew Clark, was arrested in Mexico last year by Mexican authorities. Wedding's whereabouts remain unknown, according to the FBI. 'While we haven't ruled out other countries, we believe Wedding is residing in Mexico and possibly living under the protection of the Sinaloa drug cartel,' said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office on Thursday. Wedding is reportedly known by several aliases, including 'El Jefe,' 'Public Enemy' and 'Giant.' The $10 million reward offered by the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is in addition to a $50,000 reward offered by the FBI for information leading to Wedding's apprehension, arrest and extradition. Authorities say the group allegedly killed two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, which was said to be a case of mistaken identity. Wedding placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom as a part of Team Canada during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He then allegedly began running the operation from Mexico for over a decade. If convicted on the murder and attempted murder charges, Wedding faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life in federal prison, as do the continuing criminal enterprise charges.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Yahoo
FBI offers $10M reward for Canadian ex-Olympian accused of running drug empire, ordering murders
The FBI announced Thursday that Canadian former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding has been added to the agency's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. Wedding faces several U.S. charges, including conspiracy to export cocaine, running a criminal enterprise and murder. The U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced it is offering a $10 million reward for information that could lead to the 43-year-old's arrest, alongside the FBI's current offering of $50,000 for more information on Wedding. Wedding's drug trafficking network allegedly regularly shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and locations in the United States. Wedding is also accused of orchestrating multiple murders as part of these drug crimes. He is reportedly known by several aliases, including 'El Jefe,' 'Public Enemy' and 'Giant.' At Thursday's press conference in Los Angeles, officials said Wedding is believed to live somewhere in Mexico, possibly under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel. Cart Weiland, a senior State Department official, told reporters that after his successful snowboarding career, Wedding 'went downhill — in a different kind of way,' the Toronto Star reported. 'He traded snow for another kind of powder,' Weiland said. Prosecutors in Toronto court said in a recent letter they believe Wedding has been on the run since October when authorities first identified him as the leader of a major criminal enterprise that works with Mexican cartels and ordered multiple murders in Ontario. His alleged second-in-command, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, was arrested by Mexico's Naval forces in October. Clark, 34, was among the 29 alleged Mexican drug cartel members who were sent to the United States earlier this year in a mass handover, overseen by Attorney General Pam Bondi. In addition to the drug trafficking accusations, Wedding and Clark are accused of orchestrating the murder of four people in Ontario in November 2023 over a stolen drug shipment. Two of the deaths have been described as the result of a 'mistaken identity shooting.'
