LA PAZ, Bolivia — On Thursday, Bolivia’s ex-anti-narcotics chief was extradited to the United States, where he is set to face federal drug trafficking charges in a New York courtroom.
Authorities have identified Maximiliano Dávila, who held the position of anti-narcotics chief during the latter part of Evo Morales’ presidency from 2006 to 2019, as someone who allegedly assisted in facilitating large shipments of cocaine to the United States.
For his extradition, Dávila boarded a private jet dispatched specifically from the U.S.
In 2022, the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $5 million for credible information that could lead to Dávila’s conviction. He faces charges that include conspiring to provide high-level protection for cocaine shipments entering the U.S. as well as related weapons charges involving machine guns.
Late in November, Bolivia’s Supreme Court approved Dávila’s extradition without delay, though he continues to assert his innocence regarding the charges.
Evo Morales expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from Bolivia in 2008, alleging that the agency was attempting to undermine his government amidst rising commodity prices and a surge of leftist political movements across South America that posed challenges to U.S. influence in the region. Furthermore, the two nations have refrained from appointing ambassadors to each other’s countries for over 15 years.
The investigation that resulted in charges against Dávila began in 2017, led by the DEA’s Special Operations Division, according to court documents. As part of this investigation, informants who worked with the DEA recorded a co-defendant of Dávila boasting about having access to an MD-11 military cargo plane for the transport of 60 tons of cocaine into the United States.
The co-defendant, Percy Vasquez-Drew, claimed that ‘he and other traffickers operated freely in Bolivia because the DEA and CIA had been removed’ and that remaining anti-drug officials were susceptible to bribery, as detailed in court filings from prosecutors.
Vasquez-Drew was apprehended in Panama under a U.S. warrant, subsequently pleading guilty in 2020 to a charge of conspiracy to smuggle more than 450 kilograms of narcotics into the U.S. Earlier this year, his sentence was modified to 100 months in federal prison.
Bolivia ranks as the third-largest producer of cocaine globally.
The exact relationship between Dávila and Morales, a former coca farmer, is unclear. However, both appeared together in a photograph from October 2019 at a celebration for Morales’ birthday, with several cakes adorned with coca leaves. This photograph also featured the former head of Bolivia’s national police.
While the DEA has conducted numerous arrests of Bolivian drug traffickers over the years, including Dávila’s predecessor, Morales has never been implicated in drug trafficking. He has openly criticized the U.S.-led war on drugs in Latin America and has defended the traditional uses of coca, the base ingredient for cocaine.
