Bolivian officials said Marset, 34, was captured in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on March 13 and then flown to the U.S., with the DEA involved in the transfer, according to Reuters. The same report identified him as the alleged leader of the First Uruguayan Cartel and said the arrest came after Bolivia restored operational cooperation with the DEA following a 17-year break.
In the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said Marset made an initial appearance in federal court in Alexandria on charges tied to a money-laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors say the network moved thousands of kilograms of cocaine, sometimes in loads as large as 10 tons, from South America to Europe. If convicted, Marset faces up to 20 years in prison.
What Sebastian Marset faces after his transfer to the U.S.
The DEA said Marset had been on its Most Wanted Fugitives List since May 2025 and described his handoff from Bolivian custody as the end of a lengthy international pursuit. In a DEA update on Marset’s arrival in U.S. custody, the agency said Bolivian law enforcement captured him and transferred him to DEA agents, who escorted him to the United States.
U.S. prosecutors say the alleged laundering network was not small or improvised. Court filings say Marset’s associate Federico Ezequiel Santoro Vassallo helped collect cocaine proceeds in Europe, move them through the global banking system and disguise the source of the money. Officials say Marset was allegedly owed more than 17 million euros from one 2021 cocaine shipment alone, underscoring why the case is being treated as a major transnational prosecution.
How the Sebastian Marset case built over time
The U.S. case did not begin with Marset’s March 2026 arrest. In a May 2025 Justice Department announcement unsealing the indictment, prosecutors laid out the money-laundering allegations against him and said the case centered on drug proceeds funneled through U.S. financial institutions.
Long before that indictment became public, Marset’s name had already triggered political fallout in Uruguay. A 2023 Reuters report on the passport scandal detailed how senior Uruguayan officials resigned amid scrutiny over a passport issued to Marset while he was detained in Dubai, a document that let him leave the United Arab Emirates legally.
Bolivia had already been dealing with its own Marset problem by then. An August 2023 El País profile of his escape in Santa Cruz described him as a high-value target who slipped a police siege, used false identities and left investigators chasing a network tied to cash, real estate and soccer ventures.
Now, with Sebastian Marset in a federal courtroom in Alexandria, the story has shifted from a South American fugitive hunt to a U.S. criminal case. The next phase will depend on whether prosecutors can turn a sprawling multinational investigation into a conviction.
