U.S. authorities have renewed their push to extradite Jonathan Álvarez Alfaro, the Costa Rican suspect known as “El Profe” or “Gato,” reviving a case that had already tested the limits of the country’s new extradition rules. Costa Rica’s Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the new request was received on April 7 and that Álvarez is now again being sought by the United States in connection with alleged drug trafficking crimes.
The case comes from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, where Álvarez faces charges of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine for shipment into the United States, as well as a separate cocaine distribution charge. Costa Rican judicial authorities said the request forms part of joint work involving the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the OIJ, and U.S. authorities.
Investigators in the United States allege that Álvarez was tied to an international trafficking structure operating across South, Central, and North America and focused on moving large quantities of cocaine into U.S. territory. Among the acts cited in the renewed request is his alleged link to a 328-kilogram cocaine shipment seized by Costa Rican authorities in July 2016.
This is the second time the DEA has asked Costa Rica to hand him over. In February, the Criminal Sentencing Appeals Court in San José blocked the first extradition request after ruling that the allegations against Álvarez were tied to conduct that took place before Costa Rica’s constitutional reform allowing the extradition of nationals. Judges held that the reform, which took effect on May 28, 2025, could not be applied retroactively in his case because the alleged acts attributed to him ran from 2014 to May 2021.
That earlier ruling set Álvarez apart from other high-profile suspects whose extraditions were allowed because the alleged conduct extended past the reform’s entry into force. In March, Costa Rica completed the extradition of former magistrate and security minister Celso Gamboa Sánchez and alleged trafficker Edwin López Vega, the first Costa Rican nationals handed over to the United States under the new constitutional framework.
Álvarez remains in custody in Costa Rica for a separate money laundering case tied to the Venus investigation. Prosecutors have linked him to the case known as Venus 2.0, which targets an alleged network accused of laundering drug proceeds through property and business dealings. The renewed U.S. filing now opens a fresh legal chapter and could become another major test of how Costa Rican courts interpret the country’s still-new extradition reform. That last point is an inference from the renewed filing and the February ruling.
