Jesus Einar Lima Lobo Dorado, a Bolivian national aged 52, was arrested at the end of September in Santa Cruz de la Sierra following an international operation supported by INTERPOL.
The fugitive is the alleged leader of a criminal network known as the ‘Lima Lobo family’, which is suspected of trafficking drugs internationally across several countries in the Amazonian region via a network of private planes.
The network is also believed to have links with a number of Colombian drug cartels and Brazil’s ‘First Command of the Capital’ mafia group.
Following an operational meeting in Buenos Aires in October 2018, the case of the suspected drug lord was one of several targeted by INTERPOL’s Fugitive Investigative Support (FIS) unit as part of its activities within Project EL PAcCTO (Europe-Latin America Assistance Programme against Transnational Organized Crime).
The meeting generated investigative leads, with information exchanged between the INTERPOL National Central Bureaus in La Paz and Brasilia as well as FIS at its General Secretariat headquarters facilitating the fugitive’s arrest.
Authorities in Bolivia are holding the suspect pending his extradition to Brazil.
“Helping member countries bring fugitives to justice is at the heart of what INTERPOL is and does,” said Secretary General Jürgen Stock.
“Without the Red Notice and our close collaboration with Bolivia and Brazil through EL PAcCTO, this fugitive would likely still be at large,” added the Head of INTERPOL.
Circulated to 194 INTERPOL member countries, the Red Notice is a powerful tool in tracking international fugitives, informing police worldwide that a person is wanted and requesting the suspect be placed under provisional arrest pending extradition.
INTERPOL’s support to EL PAcCTO falls within an EU-funded three-year project to create and develop a permanent mechanism for fugitive investigations across Latin America. Its partnership with INTERPOL involves Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Peru.
It aims to locate and arrest high-profile fugitives through joint investigations and the use of INTERPOL’s global policing capabilities.
Since INTERPOL’s first operational meeting in October 2018 under its support to EL PAcCTO, 90 Red Notice cases have been reviewed, leading to 24 arrests and significant intelligence gathered on several cases pending.
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