Uruguayan fugitive Sebastián Marset captured in Bolivia and placed in U.S. custody
Marset was also listed among the DEA’s most wanted fugitives and was regarded as one of the agency’s five highest-priority drug trafficking targets
Suspected Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset was captured on Friday in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, in an operation that ends one of the Southern Cone’s longest and most visible manhunts. Paraguayan authorities confirmed the arrest and said Marset had been secured after a raid carried out by Bolivian forces.
The arrest took place in the same Bolivian city where Marset had escaped a large police operation in July 2023. Since then, he had remained one of the region’s most wanted fugitives amid investigations into drug trafficking, organized crime and money laundering in several countries.
Marset was also listed among the DEA’s most wanted fugitives and was regarded as one of the agency’s five highest-priority drug trafficking targets. In May 2025, Washington offered up to $2 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction. His name also returned to the regional spotlight in 2022, when Paraguayan authorities linked him to the killing of anti-drug prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, who was shot dead in Colombia while investigating trafficking and money-laundering networks connected to the A Ultranza Py case.
According to reporting published on Friday, Marset was detained during raids in Santa Cruz and later handed over to U.S. agents for transfer out of Bolivia. Reuters said Paraguayan officials confirmed the arrest, while regional outlets reported that the operation also swept up other people linked to his network and involved a heavy security deployment.
Marset was wanted in Paraguay and Bolivia on charges linked to organized crime and cocaine trafficking, and in the United States he was also facing a money-laundering case. The U.S. State Department announced in May 2025 a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction, describing him as a fugitive wanted throughout the Southern Cone.
His case had already taken on an added political dimension in Uruguay after the 2022 issuance of a Uruguayan passport while he was detained in Dubai triggered an institutional scandal and the resignation of senior officials. That episode expanded Marset’s notoriety beyond the criminal file and turned his name into a regional political issue.
In Paraguay, Marset has been identified as a central figure in the A Ultranza Py case, the country’s largest anti-drug-trafficking and money-laundering investigation. Paraguayan authorities have also linked him to the killing of anti-mafia prosecutor Marcelo Pecci in Colombia, although that line has not so far resulted in formal charges against him for that crime.
The arrest now opens a new judicial phase focused on where he will ultimately be tried and whether competing jurisdictions will seek extradition. Paraguay wants him on drug and money-laundering charges; the United States has accused him of laundering proceeds; and Bolivia had been pursuing him over his alleged criminal network in Santa Cruz. For now, the clearest development is that the man who eluded police and prosecutors across several countries for nearly three years is no longer on the run.
