Bolivia Captures Alleged Drug Kingpin Sebastián Marset in Major Law Enforcement Operation
In a significant development in the fight against international organized crime, Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz has confirmed the arrest of Sebastián Marset, an alleged Uruguayan drug trafficker described as one of South America's most wanted criminals. The announcement came during a press conference in La Paz on March 13, 2026, marking the culmination of a complex multinational investigation.
End of the 'King of the South' Criminal Empire
Marset, 34, who had styled himself as the "King of the South"—a moniker he reportedly stamped on bricks of cocaine—faces multiple serious allegations. He is accused of trafficking tonnes of cocaine from South America to European markets and of ordering the assassination of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, who was shot dead while honeymooning on a Colombian beach in 2022.
Bolivian Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo revealed that Marset is already being extradited to the United States, where Washington had sought him for allegedly laundering money through American financial institutions. This extradition represents a notable shift in Bolivia-U.S. law enforcement cooperation under President Paz's centrist government, nearly two decades after his leftwing predecessor Evo Morales expelled both the U.S. ambassador and Drug Enforcement Administration officials.
International Criminal Network and Elusive Fugitive
Marset's criminal career has spanned multiple countries and continents. First arrested for drug trafficking in 2013, he spent years in Uruguayan prisons where he allegedly forged connections with Brazil's powerful Primeiro Comando da Capital (First Capital Command) organized crime group and Italy's notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia.
Upon his release in 2019, Marset moved to Paraguay using a fake Bolivian passport under the name Gabriel de Souza Beuner. There, he reportedly established networks to traffic drugs from Bolivia—both a cocaine producer and key transit hub for Peruvian cocaine—to European destinations including Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.
His international movements continued in 2021 when he was detained in Dubai while traveling on a fraudulent Paraguayan passport. Remarkably, he left the United Arab Emirates legally within days after Uruguayan authorities issued him a new passport, a scandal that led to multiple Uruguayan official resignations.
Football Team Ownership and Public Mockery of Authorities
As investigators from various nations closed in, Marset relocated to Bolivia in 2022, this time using a Brazilian passport under the name Luis Paulo Amorim Santos. In a brazen move, he purchased a second-division football team in Bolivia and installed himself in its starting lineup, appearing in matches broadcast on local television.
Despite a July 2023 raid on his Santa Cruz de la Sierra mansion, Marset had already escaped, apparently tipped off ahead of time. For nearly two years, he remained on the run, periodically posting videos mocking Bolivian authorities and even arranging for a Uruguayan television presenter to be flown by helicopter to interview him at his hideout.
In a dramatic conclusion to the manhunt, Bolivian police ultimately captured Marset in the same city where he had previously eluded them. The arrest signals both the end of his criminal operations and represents a substantial victory for international law enforcement cooperation in the Americas.
