PLANO, Texas- A former foreign government official and convicted drug trafficker will face criminal charges in a Texas court.
Two Costa Rican men, including a former government official and judge, have been extradited to the United States and are scheduled to make their first court appearances in East Texas on March 24 to face international drug trafficking charges, federal prosecutors said.
Celso Manuel Gamboa Sanchez, 49, and Edwin Danney Lopez-Vega, 49, were extradited from Costa Rica to the United States on March 20 after being charged in separate indictments in the Eastern District of Texas with drug trafficking violations, according to U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.
Federal officials said the extraditions are the first of Costa Rican citizens to the United States since Costa Rica reformed its constitution in May 2025 to allow the extradition of Costa Rican nationals for drug trafficking offenses.
Costa Rican police arrested Gamboa Sanchez and Lopez-Vega on June 23, 2025, on drug trafficking charges filed in the United States, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors said Gamboa Sanchez, a former Costa Rican government official and judge, had facilitated the shipment of “tens of millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine from Colombia through Costa Rica to the United States and Europe” before his arrest.
He was indicted on July 9, 2025, and charged with conspiring with other international drug traffickers to manufacture, distribute and transport significant quantities of cocaine, much of it allegedly moved through Costa Rica and into the United States for further distribution.
The Justice Department said Gamboa Sanchez held several government positions in Costa Rica, including serving as Minister of Public Security in 2014 and as a judge from 2016 to 2018.
In a separate indictment, Lopez-Vega was charged on June 11, 2025, with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine knowing it would be imported into the United States.
The two-count indictment alleges that beginning in 2008, Lopez-Vega was involved in a conspiracy to traffic cocaine not only to the United States, but also to countries across South, Central and North America, including Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico.
The Justice Department said the cases are part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” aimed at targeting criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings.
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum penalty of life in federal prison, prosecutors said.
The cases are being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division, the FBI, and the DEA San Jose Country Office, and are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Wes Wynne, according to the Justice Department.
Federal officials also credited Costa Rican authorities, the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica for assistance in the arrests and extraditions.
An indictment is an allegation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.