A former cop considered one of the most powerful cocaine overlords in Latin America and dubbed the Bolivian Pablo Escobar who was busted in a DEA operation in Colombia is set to be extradited to the US.

Omar Rojas Echeverria is set to be extradited to the United States to answer before the Southern District Court of New York for crimes of drugs and arms trafficking.

Rojas Echeverria is a former Bolivian police major who has been dubbed the ‘Bolivian Pablo Escobar’ due to the large amounts of drugs he is alleged to have trafficked and due to his significant alleged connections with the Bolivian elite, such as via his brother Alexander Rojas, who until last year was the Inspector General of the Bolivian police, which is the third highest position in the institution.

He was arrested in March 2021 and accused of sending at least 100 tonnes of cocaine and weapons into the United States.

Investigators believe that Rojas Echeverria was one of the largest cocaine traffickers in the region with a network with ties to Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States.

He was detained after months of investigations and thanks to information reportedly provided by an informant who had a long-standing relationship with him.

The DEA report said that the former director of the Bolivian Anti-Drug Agency, who has not been named, together with Rojas Echeverria, who once held a high position in the organisation, “used their official positions and connections to obtain access to Bolivian aerodromes, in order to facilitate cocaine shipments in large quantities”.

The DEA alleges that Rojas Echeverria used his knowledge and contacts to become the person in charge of coordinating the movement of aircraft loaded with drugs and taking off from clandestinely runways in northern Bolivia. Their destination: the USA.

An exact date has not yet been set for his extradition to the United States.