Costa Rican authorities captured Alejandro Arias, the fugitive known as “Diablo” or “El Diablo,” on Friday after an armed confrontation that lasted nearly an hour in the Sarapiqui region northeast of the capital.
Arias, 41, had been at large for almost 10 years and was also long sought by the United States on drug-trafficking charges.
Costa Rican warrants charged him with drug trafficking, robbery, first-degree murder and money laundering.
Friday’s operation took place approximately 42 miles from San Jose in the north of the Caribbean region. Officers exchanged fire with Arias’s group. One member of the entourage was killed. Eight police officers were wounded, with two in critical condition.
Authorities recovered five high-caliber military rifles, three handguns and surveillance drones at the scene.
Alongside Arias, officers detained two other gang members. One was Jonathan Perez, known as “Tan,” described as an alleged drug-trafficking leader.
Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency director Michael Soto said the gangs connected to those arrested Friday are responsible for 360 homicides.
“In a fairly complex police operation, we have managed to detain Alejandro Arias Monge and two very important subjects in the country’s criminal history,” Soto said.
He later characterized the effort as “a very precise, very professional operation that led to these arrests, which were necessary for the Costa Rican people.”
Costa Rican officials have linked a recent surge in killings in the Central American country to clashes among drug-trafficking organizations. Arias, according to those same officials, played a central role in that violence.
The DEA alleges Arias has conspired with drug traffickers to move multi-hundred-kilogram loads of cocaine out of Colombia.
The cocaine is smuggled through Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala to Mexico, with the main destination being the United States.
Arias’s organization also uses social media to intimidate Costa Rican citizens by posting images of firearms, threatening messages to the public and governmental leaders, and videos of murders.
The DEA and Costa Rican authorities have uncovered criminal cells operated by Arias in all seven provinces of Costa Rica.
Arias is not the first Central American to face U.S. drug trafficking charges this year. A federal jury on Feb. 5 found Jorge Rubén Camargo-Clarke, alleged founder of Panama’s biggest drug federation, guilty of narcotics trafficking.