Cooperation with Guatemalan officials to result in more drug busts, North Texas feds say

As a mayor in Guatemala, Erik Salvador Suniga Rodriguez was well protected in his native country, even as he sent multiple tons of cocaine into the U.S., federal prosecutors say.

Now, Suniga Rodriguez sits in a jail cell in the Eastern District of Texas, awaiting trial in Plano on charges that he conspired to distribute the drugs.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Brown said Tuesday during a news conference in Plano that more prosecutions are coming, perhaps involving other corrupt governmental officials from Guatemala. Brown was joined by Guatemalan Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras Argueta in announcing cooperation between the two countries that led to the mayor’s arrest and extradition.

Brown’s office has achieved similar cooperation agreements with Colombia, where most of the world’s cocaine is grown, to extradite some of its drug traffickers to North Texas for prosecution. His was the first district in Texas to ask for such “long-arm” cases, resulting in landmark 2012 convictions that were upheld on appeal.

Last May, Brown announced the arrests of 13 additional Colombians who will be prosecuted in North Texas on drug charges.

Suniga Rodriguez, 44, was mayor of Ayutla, a town on the border with Mexico. Known as “El Pocho,” he was indicted in June 2018 on drug and money-laundering charges. Brown called him one of Guatemala’s “biggest drug dealers,” who built his organization over a two-decade period using “political cover.”

Due to Suniga Rodriguez’s position, he was provided “some level of immunity” from prosecution in Guatemala, Brown said. As a result, the Guatemalan AG’s office had to exert “political willpower” to extradite him, Brown said.

Adam Cohen, director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force in Washington, D.C., said Suniga Rodriguez was a “priority target” for the U.S.

Suniga Rodriguez surrendered to Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Guatemala in December and was flown to McKinney to establish jurisdiction. All of his assets in the U.S. have been frozen under the Kingpin Act, a law that seeks to prevent high-ranking drug traffickers from spending their ill-gotten proceeds.

He faces 10 years to life in prison if convicted. His lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Brown said the meeting Tuesday in Plano between U.S. law enforcement officials and their Guatemalan counterparts “laid the groundwork for future operations that we will do.” He called such cases a priority for his office and said his district has conservative judges and juries that will ensure justice is achieved.

Porras, he said, is committed to working with U.S. officials to tackle political corruption in Guatemala that allows drug traffickers to operate with impunity.

Such corruption is a key factor that enables the international drug trade.

In December, a former top law enforcement official with the Mexican government was arrested in Dallas on charges that he took millions in bribes from a violent drug cartel. Genaro Garcia Luna, 51, has since been extradited to New York for prosecution. A court filing said he accepted payments from the notorious Sinaloa cartel to allow it to “operate with impunity in Mexico.”