In the last three decades, Eight Guatemalan mayors or former mayors have been extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking proceedings. Investigations by US authorities maintain that they used their political power to facilitate the transportation of cocaine, protect shipments, coordinate routes or lead criminal structures with operations in Central America and Mexico.
The first mayor extradited to the United States was Arnoldo Vargas Estrada, from Zacapawho was captured in December 1990 and extradited in 1992. Vargas was elected for the Union of the National Center (UCN) for the period 1986-1990 and was re-elected in the 1990 elections; However, he did not assume the new mandate due to his capture. The UCN, founded in 1983 by Jorge Carpio Nicolle, former presidential candidate in 1985.
US authorities convicted Vargas of directing an organization dedicated to drug trafficking to that country. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but, after a reduction in his sentence, he returned to Guatemala in 2017.
Two years later he tried to return to politics through a civic committee to compete again for the mayor of Zacapa, although he did not manage to participate in the elections. Vargas died on October 8, 2025.
Erik Salvador Súñiga Rodríguez, “el Pocho”
Erik Salvador Súñiga Rodríguez, known as the Pochogoverned Ayutla, San Marcos, for three consecutive periods, between 2008 and 2019, a municipality bordering Chiapas, Mexico.
He won the first elections with the Unionist Party, was re-elected in 2011 through the UNE-Gana coalition and won a third term in 2015 with the Crecer Civic Committee, a municipal political organization created to participate only in the Ayutla elections.
Investigations by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the United States Department of Justice identified him as the leader of the structure called the Pochosan organization accused of sending tons of cocaine from Guatemala to the Sinaloa cartel.
After several months of negotiations with the US authorities, Súñiga surrendered on December 19, 2019 in Tapachula, Mexico, from where he was transferred by DEA agents to the United States.
While facing the judicial process, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine, but passed away on April 18, 2020 in a South Carolina hospital for pancreatic cancer before sentencing.
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Carlos Danilo Preciado Navajo
When he was still mayor of Ocós, San Marcos, Carlos Danilo Preciado Navajo He was captured in Panama, in January 2021, due to an extradition request presented by the United States.
Preciado Navajo became mayor for the National Unity of Hope (UNE) in 2019, but he was only in office for two years, due to his capture.
According to the accusation, he was part of an organization dedicated to international cocaine trafficking and coordinated the shipment of shipments from Guatemala to Mexican organizations for subsequent entry into the United States.
After his extradition, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine. In September 2024, a US court sentenced him to 10 years in prison, in addition to five years of supervised release at the end of the sentence.
Despite being detained in the United States, tried to participate in the elections again municipal elections in 2023, but the Supreme Electoral Tribunal rejected the registration.
The former mayor is the brother of Vivian Beatriz Preciado Navajo, a deputy to the Congress of the Republic.
Esvin Fernando Marroquín Tupas
Esvin Fernando Marroquín Tupaswho according to the US indictment is known as “Kaka Rala”, was mayor of Cuilapa, Santa Rosa, for two consecutive terms, from 2016 to 2024, but did not conclude his term.
In 2015 he won the Cuilapa Mayor’s Office with the now defunct Patriotic Party (PP). Four years later he was re-elected with Citizen Prosperity. In 2023 he sought a third term with Vamos; However, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal revoked his registration.
The US investigation maintains that between 2015 and 2019 he participated in an organization that coordinated the transportation of cocaine from Colombia and other South American countries to Guatemala and, later, to the United States.
In June 2023 he lost his immunity, was captured a month later and finally extradited on May 16, 2024.
During the trial in the United States, he admitted having participated in the transfer of at least 450 kilograms of cocaine and, in August 2025, he pleaded guilty to the crime of conspiracy to distribute drugs destined for the United States.
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Romeo Ramos Cruz
The former mayor of Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla, was elected in 2019 by the Productivity and Labor Party (PPT), a group created in 2017 and canceled a year later due to non-compliance in the presentation of financial reports. In 2023 he sought re-election with Cabal, a party founded in 2020, but was defeated at the polls.
Ramos Cruzwas captured on May 15, 2025 and extradited on August 4 of the same year. The accusation indicates that he used his position to promote drug trafficking operations between 2022 and 2023. According to the US Prosecutor’s Office, he coordinated the logistics to introduce 500 kilograms of cocaine hidden in an alleged shipment of cement destined for municipal projects.
Ramos would have prepared an official letter from the Municipality to let an alleged donation of cement enter Guatemala and assured that he could use his influence to avoid customs controls in Puerto Quetzal, but in reality the shipment was cocaine.
The Prosecutor’s Office also accuses him of participating in meetings in Connecticut to coordinate a sale of cocaine, for which he later received part of the profits.
The evidence presented by the Department of Justice includes telephone recordings, video calls, in-person meetings, testimonies of collaborators and drug seizures.
In July 2026, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine. The hearing to hear his sentence was scheduled for December 2, 2026 and he faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life imprisonment, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Crysthian Omar Escobar Ángel
Crysthian Omar Escobar Ángel He was elected mayor of El Rodeo, San Marcos, in 2019, he won the Mayor’s Office with the Compromiso, Renovación y Orden (CREO) party, founded in 2010.
According to the Department of Justice, he was one of the leaders of a criminal organization identified since 2015, dedicated to manufacturing, storing and transporting large quantities of cocaine from Colombia to Central America, Mexico and the United States.
Authorities also documented intercepted conversations in which he allegedly ordered acts of violence to protect the organization’s operations.
In 2022, the Public Ministry requested to withdraw his immunity after he was accused by a court in the Eastern District of Texas. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine destined for the United States.
On April 7, 2026, he was sentenced to 327 months in prison, equivalent to 27 years and three months.
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Two mayors required by the United States
In addition to these cases, the Public Ministry requested in April 2024 the withdrawal of immunity to face an extradition process against the mayors. Roderico Eleazar Ramos Aguilarfrom El Rodeo, and Exadillas Dionel Ramos Aguilarfrom Esquipulas Palo Gordo, both from San Marcos.
According to the accusation presented before the Court of the Southern District of California, both are accused of being part of an organization dedicated to buying, processing and distributing cocaine from Guatemala to Mexico for its subsequent entry into the United States. Until now, both processes are still pending and have not been extradited.
There was also a former candidate convicted
The list of municipal officials linked to drug trafficking proceedings also includes political actors who did not occupy a mayor’s office.
one of them is Mario Rigoberto Ascencio Tejadaknown as alias “Rigo”, who was a candidate for Mayor of Salamá, Baja Verapaz, for the FCN-Nación party in the 2019 elections, in which he obtained second place.
US authorities identified him as a member of an organization dedicated to cocaine trafficking that operated since at least 2008 in South America, Central America and North America. According to the accusation, between 2011 and 2020 he directed and facilitated drug trafficking operations in Guatemala.
Ascencio was captured on December 23, 2022 at the request of the Eastern District Court of Texas. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic drugs to the United States and on November 13, 2025, he was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison.