Dominican and Costa Rican Nationals Extradited to U.S. Over Cocaine Trafficking

Missaelle Morales Silvestre, a Dominican citizen identified as “Bori” or “El Viejo,” was handed over by Dominican authorities to U.S. Marshals and flown from Las Américas International Airport to Puerto Rico. He faces U.S. charges of conspiring to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine that was trafficked from Colombia through the Caribbean into the United States.

Gilbert Bell Fernández, a Costa Rican known as “Macho Coca,” had the final domestic obstacle to his U.S. extradition removed when Costa Rica’s Limón criminal court dismissed the last pending fuel‑theft case against him. Bell is wanted by U.S. officials for alleged involvement in large‑scale cocaine shipments through the Caribbean, and the Treasury Department previously sanctioned him as a major trafficker. Both cases illustrate growing cooperation between the United States and Caribbean nations to dismantle transnational drug networks under bilateral extradition agreements.