The United States delivered the final documents Costa Rican courts required to advance the extradition of Celso Gamboa Sánchez and Edwin Danney López Vega, known as Pecho de Rata. The Public Ministry confirmed the arrival Thursday. U.S. officials sent written guarantees to the San José Penal Court.
These promises state that, if convicted in the Eastern District of Texas on international drug trafficking and conspiracy charges, the men will not receive sentences longer than 50 years in prison. Officials will also credit the time they spent in preventive detention in Costa Rica toward any final term.
This step satisfies the conditions the Tribunal Penal de Apelación de Sentencia de San José set when it upheld the extradition orders. The appeals court confirmed the rulings in February but deferred action until it received these assurances.
Gamboa served as security minister and as a magistrate before his arrest. López Vega carried a prior conviction linked to drug cases. Judicial police detained both men on June 23, 2025, after the United States requested their extradition. Prosecutors in Texas accuse them of assisting in the movement of large cocaine shipments from Colombia through Costa Rica to the United States.
The pair remains in preventive custody at La Reforma prison in Alajuela. Costa Rica changed its constitution in May 2025 to allow extradition of its citizens in cases of drug trafficking and terrorism. Courts granted initial approval in October 2025, with the appeals process concluding earlier this year. Officials suspended a local case against López Vega to clear the path for his transfer.
A judge will now review the U.S. documents based on workload and issue the extradition order. U.S. authorities plan to coordinate the physical transfer with their own aircraft, so the handover will not occur immediately. This case represents the first test of the updated legal framework for extraditing Costa Rican nationals.
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