San Jose Costa Rica at Night. The recent arrest of Costa Rica’s former security minister and the revelations in his case have shed light on the corruption and drug trafficking networks engulfing the government in what may be the most significant drug scandal in the country’s history.
On June 23, Celso Gamboa Sánchez, who served as Costa Rica’s security minister from 2014 to 2015, was arrested in the capital, San José, following an extradition request filed by the United States.
The request, seen by InSight Crime, relates to charges of alleged links between drug trafficking networks and high-ranking Costa Rican officials.
The arrest came after a constitutional reform passed in May 2025 to allow the extradition of Costa Rican nationals on drug-related charges.
Gamboa faces charges of conspiracy to traffic and distribute cocaine destined for the United States, as well as aiding and abetting the crime, according to the extradition request.
US authorities identified him as the Costa Rica-based coordinator of a regional drug trafficking network tied to Colombia’s Clan del Golfo, also known as the Gaitanistas or Urabeños, and the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s leading criminal organizations.
SEE ALSO: Will a New US-Costa Rica Extradition Agreement Help Control the Country’s Drug & Violence Problem?
A US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation submitted as part of the charges alleges that Gamboa played a key role in coordinating the reception of cocaine shipments sent to Costa Rica by the Clan del Golfo and other Colombian and Panamanian trafficking networks.
The drugs were then stored and redistributed to Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States.
In statements given to confidential sources in 2023, included in the DEA investigation, Gamboa claimed he could receive cocaine shipments via both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, asserting that President Rodrigo Chaves Robles’ administration would allow the shipments to enter without interference.
Chaves Robles denied any connection to the former minister and accused the Judicial Investigation Agency (Organismo de Investigación Judicial – OIJ) of failing to carry out a proper investigation.
However, Randall Zúñiga, director of the OIJ, described the arrest as a “landmark” and “a major step forward in the fight against organized crime.”
SEE ALSO: Costa Rica Crime Profile: Criminal Groups, Security Forces, the Judicial System, and Prisons
Analysis
The recent evidence linking the Costa Rican government to drug trafficking networks shows how corruption is spreading alongside the country’s growing role in the drug trade, and reaching the highest levels of power.
The Gamboa case is not the only corruption scandal implicating senior officials. On July 1, the Supreme Court asked Congress to lift President Chaves Robles’ immunity so he could face corruption charges related to consultancy contracts financed by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica – BCIE) in 2023.
These events have come amid a broader wave of recent cases involving judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and administrative staff allegedly stealing unused property and land, laundering the assets through fraudulent registration, and sharing the profits.
SEE ALSO: Costa Rica Cracks Down on Money Laundering Amid Rising Drug Violence
Until now, drug-related corruption cases had mostly been limited to lower-level institutions. These included traffic and national police officers, healthcare workers who facilitated drug transport via ambulances, police involved in cargo theft and drug Sales, and even judicial officials who leaked operational information to criminal groups.
Other high-level officials have been linked to drug trafficking, such as José Fabio Pizarro Espinosa, former director of Costa Rica’s national police, or former BCIE President Ricardo Alem, who was sentenced in 2008 to 20 years in prison for cocaine possession and international drug trafficking. But Gamboa is the highest-ranking official to be arrested for alleged ties to drug traffickers.
In recent years, Costa Rica has become increasingly important as a transshipment point for cocaine bound for Europe and the United States.
In 2024 alone, authorities seized 27 metric tons of cocaine, 5.6 more than in 2023, while homicide rates surged in key drug trafficking zones such as Limón, the country’s main port.
As Costa Rica takes on a more central role in regional cocaine logistics, trafficking groups have ramped up efforts to forge alliances with local actors like Gamboa, allowing them to consolidate trafficking routes and improve their logistical capacity, and becoming more sophisticated and powerful in the process.
