Q COSTARICA — Celso Gamboa, who once served as magistrate of the Sala III of the Supreme Court, as Deputy Attorney General, Minister of Security, Vice Minister of the Presidency, Director of Intelligence and National Security (DIS), and former Vice Minister of Public Security, is today behind bars, at the behest of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for being the representative of the Gulf Cartel in Central America.
Sources close to the case have confirmed the role attributed to Gamboa stated in the extradition request processed by the DEA with Costa Rican authorities, in their efforts to bring the Costa Rican to trial in a Dallas, Texas, court.
The investigation identifies Gamboa as the apparent representative of the Cartel del Goffo (Gulf Cartel), which operates in Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and other locations.
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This criminal group, dedicated to drug trafficking and related crimes, is considered a terrorist organization and the oldest criminal network in Mexico. However, the document does not elaborate much on Gamboa’s role or his ties to the core or leadership of the Mexican cartel.
It also points to the existence of international connections between the politician and lawyer and his accomplices, with whom he apparently maintained contact and coordinated operations without leaving the country.
According to records from Costa Rica’s immigration service, the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME), Gamboa has not left, not legally in any event, Costa Rica since May 2019.
Allegedly, the Costa Rican communicated through cell phone calls and chats, in which illicit business dealings and the logistics of transporting drugs were discussed.
Two former associates of Gamboa, Honduran nationals already extradited to the United States, reportedly provided these revelations and evidence linking Gamboa to the transnational drug trafficking network to the DEA.
The investigation alleges that Gamboa committed at least two crimes. The first is conspiracy to manufacture and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, with the intent, knowledge, and reasonable cause to believe that the drug would be illegally imported into the United States, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, sections 959(a), 960, and 963.
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The second charge is the alleged manufacture and distribution of five kilograms or more of cocaine with the same intent, knowledge, and reasonable cause, as well as his participation as an accomplice, in violation of Title 21, section 959, and Title 18, section 2 of the United States Code.
The former Minister of Security and former magistrate of the Criminal Cassation Court, and once an advocate of the extradition of Costa Ricans, did not accept voluntary extradition and was placed in provisional detention (remand) for two months, along with Edwin Danney López Vega, alias “Pecho de Rata” following the detention by the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) at the request of the DEA and a U.S. court.
The pretrial detention period will allow a Costa Rican judge to formally process the extradition request.
Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel, whose origins can be traced to 1984, is one of Mexico’s oldest criminal organizations. At its peak, its leader, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, was considered the most powerful kingpin in the Mexican underworld.
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However, in recent years, it has lost power and influence due to internal divisions among rival factions, as documented by Insight Crime.
These factions continue to control key areas of the US-Mexico border, especially in areas near the Gulf of Mexico. In recent years, they have benefited from the increase in migrant smuggling across the border.
Their strategic position at several border crossings has given them a historic advantage in smuggling drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States, and high-caliber weapons and cash into Mexico.
When Juan García Ábrego took over his uncle’s drug trafficking business, then a modest marijuana and heroin operation, negotiated a deal with Colombia’s Cali Cartel, a powerful criminal organization seeking new routes to the US market after being affected by the US offensive in the Caribbean.
The deal was irresistible to both parties: García Ábrego would be responsible for crossing cocaine shipments across the Mexican border, assuming the risks, and keeping up to 50% of the profits.
By the time he was extradited to the US in January 1996, the Gulf Cartel was generating billions of dollars in annual revenue. That money was smuggled back across the border in suitcases, jets, and underground tunnels.
The organization built a distribution network that reached cities like Houston, Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles. Its influence also set a precedent for other groups.
Drug lords like Amado Carrillo Fuentes, alias “El Señor de los Cielos,” head of the Juárez Cartel, soon followed in García Ábrego’s footsteps, demanding greater control over distribution and higher profits from their Colombian partners.
The drug lord was captured in 2003 after the U.S. State Department offered a US$2 million reward for his arrest. His former security force evolved into Los Zetas, the most violent legacy of the Gulf Cartel.
Today, the cartel no longer exists as a unified organization. It is fragmented into several factions competing for criminal economies in Tamaulipas.
Among them are the Ciclones, the Escorpiones, the Rojos, the Metros, and the Panteras. These groups control border crossings, which they use to traffic drugs, weapons, and migrants, among other illicit activities.
Although the Escorpiones and the Ciclones wield the greatest power, the golden age of the Gulf Cartel under García Ábrego is over.
Celso Gamboa
According to statements from former associates of Celso Gamboa and DEA informants, as well as other evidence gathered by the agency, the Costa Rican allegedly became a sort of regional coordinator for the cartel, with influence in several Central American countries.
To achieve this, he allegedly allied himself with one of his former clients and convicted drug trafficker, Edwin López Vega, alias Pecho de Rata, who was arrested along with Gamboa on Monday.
Gamboa held the highest positions in public office, including Minister of Public Security and Supreme Court Justice.
The documentation alleges that Celso Gamboa provided logistical support to two Hondurans linked to the La H gang, who have already been extradited to the United States, where they face charges for international drug trafficking. This organization tapped into Gamboa’s expertise and supposed sway within Costa Rica’s National Coast Guard Service and port scanner management, drawing on his background in both the Executive and Judicial branches of Costa Rica’s government.
However, the DEA’s request indicates that Gamboa allegedly betrayed his associates, providing information to US authorities, which led to the capture and extradition of this criminal cell operating in the Costa Rican Caribbean.
According to the file, after the arrest of the foreigners, Gamboa assumed control of the operations alongside another individual with experience in illicit activities, thus consolidating his position within the criminal structure.
The politician. Celso Gamboa, son of a former Minister of Justice, has held several of the most important positions in combating crime and insecurity in Costa Rica. In the Public Ministry, he began as an assistant to the attorney general and later served as a prosecutor in towns such as Siquirres, Limón, and the Southern Zone.
The defence lawyer. More recently, Celso Gamboa has defended high-profile drug traffickers in Costa Rica, such as Pancho Villa, Turesky, Pecueca, Press, Pecho de Rata, and even Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, identified by the U.S. as the leader of the Cartel de los Soles.
On May 29, an update to Costa Rica’s Constitution went into effect that allows the extradition of Costa Ricans.
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