Serna<\/a>, 52, arrived on an American Airlines flight from his hometown of Medellin, Colombia on Wednesday with \u201ctwo black backpacks and no checked luggage.\u201d<\/p>\nBut, according to a federal criminal complaint, before he arrived in the U.S., Colombian authorities issued a \u201clookout alert\u201d that Serna, whose full name is Diego Alonso Serna Lopera, was suspected of travelling with drugs.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, customs officers referred Serna to secondary inspection and he took responsibility for what was in the bags: \u201cseven assorted vitamin bottles containing approximately 8,975 pills.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pills were identified as being suspected hydrocodone\/acetaminophen, once sold under the brand name Vicodin, the complaint states. Authorities said they tested positive for opiates.<\/p>\n
According to federal agents, during an interview, Serna \u201cimmediately stated that he wanted to cooperate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complaint states that Serna acknowledged that customs officers \u201chad inspected the pill bottles before departure and that he had overheard them say that the bottles contained \u2018hydrocodone\u2019\u201d and \u201cexplained that the pills were delivered to his apartment in Colombia by a friend named \u2018Sebastian,\u2019 whose last name he claimed not to know,\u201d but who \u201cpaid for his flight as a \u2018thank you\u2019 for helping (him) transport the pills.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c(Serna) was told that, once he landed in Miami, he would receive a call from Sebastian regarding the delivery of the pills,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n
Authorities said Serna cooperated in a \u201ccontrolled delivery\u201d of the pills.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the direction of law enforcement, (Serna) notified Sebastian via WhatsApp that he had arrived in Miami,\u201d the complaint states. \u201cLaw enforcement observed the exchange. (Serna) was instructed to deliver the pills to an individual who would meet him at the Miami International Airport, Departure Door 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon after, authorities said a woman showed up in a vehicle to get the pills. According to the complaint, Serna gave her a backpack and showed her the pill bottles, closed it and handed it over to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter she picked up the pills, law enforcement detained the woman and seized the narcotics,\u201d the complaint states. \u201cDuring the detention, law enforcement observed that the woman\u2019s cellphone was receiving numerous calls from a contact saved as \u2018Sebastian hijo.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The complaint does not identify the woman or whether she is facing charges.<\/p>\n
Serna was arrested on charges of importation of hydrocodone and conspiracy to import hydrocodone into the United States.<\/p>\n
Records show he appeared in Miami federal court on Thursday and was released on a $100,000 surety bond. He was ordered to surrender his passport and his travel is restricted to the Southern District of Florida. He\u2019s also prohibited from visiting transportation establishments.<\/p>\n
Serna played for the Fusion from 1998 to 2001 and was the team\u2019s all time leading scorer before it folded a year after his departure. He was named to the MLS Best XI, an annual honor for the league\u2019s best 11 players, in 2001.<\/p>\n
In 2014, he played for Miami Dade FC of the United Premier Soccer League, his last time on the pitch professionally.<\/p>\n
Records show he\u2019s scheduled to be back in Miami federal court for an arraignment hearing on Aug. 20.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Former Major League Soccer player Diego Serna, who starred for the now-defunct Miami Fusion,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-361774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}