An appeals court in San José has ordered the deferred extradition to the United States of Gilbert Hernán Bell Fernández, the Costa Rican businessman known as “Macho Coca,” who is wanted on international drug-trafficking charges, the Judicial Branch confirmed yesterday.
The Appeals Court of the Second Judicial Circuit of San José upheld an appeal filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), reversing an earlier decision and clearing the way for Bell Fernández’s eventual surrender to U.S. authorities. The full ruling will be communicated to the parties on Wednesday, and all parties in the case have already been formally notified.
A deferred extradition means the request is granted, but its execution is contingent on the completion of the criminal proceedings Bell Fernández currently faces in Costa Rica, for which he remains in custody. According to the excerpt released by the court, the extradition is granted “on a deferred basis,” subject to the condition that his domestic case be finally resolved before he is physically surrendered.
With the decision, the appellate judges overturned a ruling by the Criminal Court of the First Judicial Circuit of Limón, which had lifted the indefinite pretrial detention and travel ban imposed on the Costa Rican national. The Appeals Court ordered both measures reinstated for six months to keep Bell Fernández subject to the proceedings and to ensure his eventual handover.
The ruling also imposes a series of safeguards the United States must meet before receiving him. Washington must formally commit not to prosecute Bell Fernández for acts other than those specified in the extradition request, whether prior or concurrent, and not to impose penalties beyond those corresponding to the crimes for which his surrender is granted. The court further conditioned the extradition on Bell Fernández not facing the death penalty or life imprisonment, and on any prison sentence not exceeding 50 years, the maximum term permitted under Costa Rican law.
Bell Fernández, a 62-year-old native of Limón, was designated by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in November 2023 as one of Costa Rica’s most prominent drug traffickers, allegedly involved in smuggling cocaine from Colombia to destinations including the United States and the European Union.
In November of last year, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York formally requested his extradition. U.S. authorities accuse him of having been a member, and allegedly a leader, of a criminal organization that operated between March 2022 and August 2023 to collect and distribute large quantities of cocaine from Costa Rican territory to the United States.
Among the acts attributed to him is the negotiation of a shipment of roughly 700 kilograms of cocaine to New York in August 2023, in dealings that, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he conducted unknowingly with undercover agents.
Unlike other extradition cases, “Macho Coca’s” did not require an arrest operation. He was already in pretrial detention in connection with the case known as “PetroCoca,” an investigation into an alleged fuel-theft scheme.
