An alleged drug trafficker claimed by the United States has been captured in Guatemala, the prosecutor's office in the small Central American country announced on Saturday.
"
Edwin Maldonado becomes the fourth extraditable person apprehended in 2023 for drug trafficking offences
," prosecutor's office spokeswoman Maria José Mansilla said.
The Guatemalan was captured by police on a road 122 kilometers northeast of the capital, Guatemala.
The spokesperson recalled that Edwin Maldonado, alias "
Pancho
", was claimed by a Florida court "
for the crime of conspiring to distribute five kilograms or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable quantity of cocaine
”.
“
Pancho
” received from January 2018 to March 2022 packets of cocaine from Colombia with the aim of sending them to Mexico and then to the United States.
According to official sources, large international cartels, with the help of local drug traffickers, transport drugs and launder money in Guatemala and the rest of Central America, which generates violence in the region.
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Statistics in the United States indicate that 90% of the cocaine arriving on their soil passes through Mexico and Central America, by various means of transport (in particular planes, boats or submarines).
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