The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on four Costa Rican nationals and two Costa Rica-based entities for their involvement in narcotics trafficking and money laundering.
According to OFAC’s statement, Celso Manuel Gamboa Sanchez (Gamboa), Edwin Danney Lopez Vega, Alejandro Antonio James Wilson, and Alejandro Arias Monge were added to the sanctions list as well as Gambo’s entities – Bufete Celso Gambo & Asociados and Limon Black Star FC, a Limon-based soccer club in the second division of Costa Rica.
As a former Costa Rican vice minister of public security, Gambo used his extensive network of contacts within the government to obtain information about ongoing counter-narcotics investigations. He then sold this information to those who were the targets of these very investigations. Gambo worked with drug traffickers throughout Costa Rica, bribing police and government officials to facilitate the transport of cocaine.
Other sanctioned persons are notorious for their roles in narcotics trafficking. Lopez is a Costa Rican drug trafficker based in Limón, Costa Rica. Arias is a cocaine trafficker and Costa Rica’s most wanted fugitive. James is a Costa Rican who shipped cocaine to the United States and Europe.
