Bolivia Drug Case: Marset Lawyer Denies US Talks, Says Client Chose Trial
BOLIVIA · JUSTICE
Key Facts
- —The country Bolivia, an Andean nation of about 11 million people, where Uruguayan drug-trafficking suspect Sebastián Marset lived for years before his capture in March 2026.
- —Who he is US prosecutors accuse Marset of running a cocaine network to Europe; he has pleaded not guilty in a Virginia federal court.
- —What happened On Saturday 3 October Marset lawyer Santiago Moratorio, a Uruguayan, denied reports that his client is negotiating a deal with US prosecutors.
- —The key line Negotiating would first require a guilty plea, Moratorio said: “He has not done so: he has chosen to go to trial.”
- —Why now Bolivia’s ousted attorney general was jailed pending trial the same night, accused of protecting Marset’s network for money.
- —The catch Moratorio would neither confirm nor deny a video in which Marset calls the ex-attorney general his “friend”.
- —What comes next Marset’s trial is set to open on 11 January 2027 in a federal court in Virginia.
Marset lawyer Santiago Moratorio has denied that his client, the Uruguayan drug-trafficking suspect Sebastián Marset, is negotiating with US prosecutors. In a statement to the Bolivian daily El Deber on Saturday 3 October, he said Marset has chosen to go to trial.
The denial comes as Bolivia’s Marset-linked corruption case reaches the courts. The country’s ousted attorney general, Roger Mariaca, was sent to pre-trial detention that night, accused of protecting Marset’s network.
What the Lawyer Said
Moratorio said a US defendant can plead guilty and cooperate, plead guilty without cooperating, or go to trial. “For my client to be ‘negotiating’, as I have seen circulate, the first step would have been to plead guilty,” he wrote.
“He has not done so: he has chosen to go to trial,” the statement continued. Opinión and the news site eju.tv also carried the denial on Saturday.
The Marset lawyer did not say where the reports of talks had come from. He also insisted that evidence should be argued before judges, not in the media.
Expectations of revelations run high in the region. “When this guy starts talking, they will fall like flies,” Paraguay’s anti-drug chief Jalil Rachid said on 1 October, La Nación reported.
Who Is Sebastián Marset
Marset was born in Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, in 1991. US prosecutors accuse him of leading the First Uruguayan Cartel, which they say shipped cocaine to Europe.
He faces drug trafficking and money laundering charges in the federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia. A revised indictment in June added a narco-terrorism charge, Infobae reported.
He pleaded not guilty on 2 July 2026, and none of the charges has been proven.
In July 2023 he escaped a police raid on his mansion in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest city. Bolivian special forces captured him there on 13 March 2026 and handed him to US agents.
Paraguay has also sought him in drug and money-laundering cases. His US case was covered in US Prosecutors Say Marset Threatened or Killed Police He Could Not Corrupt.
The Bolivian Corruption Case
According to the formal accusation quoted by Opinión, Marset paid “up to US$500,000 a month” for protection. Prosecutors accuse Mariaca, two senior prosecutors and a police major of providing it.
Late on Saturday a La Paz judge ordered six months of preventive detention for all four, none of whom has been convicted. The ruling is covered in Bolivia Judge Orders Six-Month Mariaca Preventive Detention in Potosí.
A video circulating since 1 October shows Marset calling Mariaca his “friend”, prosecutors say. The Marset lawyer said it was not for the defence “to confirm, deny or interpret its authenticity”.
“We do not know its origin or its chain of custody,” Moratorio wrote in the statement quoted by Opinión and El Deber. He added that Marset “is not part” of the Bolivian investigation.
Questions Over the March Handover
The Marset lawyer also attacked the way his client was handed to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on 13 March. No Bolivian prosecutor was notified, he said, and the authorisation was signed a day earlier.
“How do you hand over a person without a single prosecutor or a single judge of this country intervening?” he asked. He contrasted it with Mariaca’s arrest at the airport his client left from “without a court order”.
Marset has made similar complaints in the US case, alleging that his arrest lacked proper warrants, Infobae reported in July.
What the Denial Does and Does Not Mean
The Marset lawyer’s statement rules out, for now, a guilty plea of the kind that usually comes with cooperation. In US federal courts, however, a defendant can still change a not-guilty plea before trial.
For Bolivia, the denial means no cooperation deal is publicly in sight that could feed testimony into the Mariaca case. Prosecutors there are building it on their own material, including cash, phones and intelligence reports, El Deber reported.
It also leaves the video as the most direct public link between Marset and Mariaca. Its authenticity has not been tested in any court.
What Comes Next
Marset’s trial is set to open on 11 January 2027 before Judge Rossie Alston Jr., Infobae reported. He remains in US custody until then.
In Bolivia, a hearing on separate money-laundering charges against Mariaca was set for Sunday 4 October. His defence has said it will appeal the first detention ruling.
More: Latin America news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Who is Sebastián Marset?
A Uruguayan born in 1991 whom US prosecutors accuse of leading a cocaine network that shipped drugs to Europe. Bolivian forces captured him in Santa Cruz in March 2026 and handed him to US agents.
Is Marset negotiating with US prosecutors?
His lawyer denies it. The Marset lawyer, Santiago Moratorio, said his client has not pleaded guilty and has chosen to go to trial.
How is Marset linked to Bolivia’s attorney general?
Bolivian prosecutors accuse ousted attorney general Roger Mariaca of protecting Marset’s network for money. Mariaca denies it and was sent to pre-trial detention on 3 October 2026.
When is Marset’s trial?
It is set to open on 11 January 2027 in the federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Marset has pleaded not guilty.
Sources: El Deber, 3 October 2026; Opinión, 3 October 2026; eju.tv, 3 October 2026; Opinión (accusation), 3 October 2026; Infobae, 2 July 2026; La Nación (Paraguay), 1 October 2026.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief