MARCHING POWDER

Anti-Drugs Czar Busted After Cocaine Lab Discovered on His Property

The former drug chief was detained after a drug lab was found on land he owns.

Authorities arrested a former anti-drugs czar after a cocaine “crystallization” lab was found on land he owns, officials said. The suspect—Felipe Cáceres, 63, who ran the Bolivian government’s controlled-substances office from 2006 to 2019—was detained on Tuesday. According to a report by the BBC, police said the facility—near the sand-and-gravel business Cáceres owns in the Cochabamba region, a major coca growing area—could employ up to 10 people. It is unclear whether Cáceres—a former union rep for coca growers—was aware of the operation. Prosecutors are now working to establish who ran the lab and whether Cáceres profited from it. Former president Evo Morales called the arrest a “set-up” by the government “to detract from its own scandals,” although he did not specify what scandals he was referring to. The case comes amid a rotten run for Bolivia’s anti-drug brass. Ex–narcotics chief Maximiliano Dávila was extradited to New York in December to face cocaine-smuggling charges, according to charging documents and U.S. officials, which he denies. Another former top official, René Sanabria, received a 14-year U.S. prison sentence in 2011 after being caught in a trafficking sting.

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Tom LatchemLead Global Correspondent

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