A Costa Rican citizen identified by his last name, Vindas-Abarca, 45, has been sentenced to federal prison in the United States for trafficking cocaine into the Eastern District of Texas, U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs announced.

According to court information, Vindas pleaded guilty to conspiring to manufacture and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine intended for importation into the United States. He was sentenced to 292 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant. Vindas had been extradited from Colombia to the United States prior to sentencing.

Investigators said Vindas coordinated maritime shipments of cocaine from Colombia to the United States. Telephone intercepts revealed he was responsible for more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine bound for the U.S., and that he had bribed Costa Rican naval officers to prevent the shipments from being intercepted.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas said the prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative, created under Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion.

The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership focused on dismantling criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in the United States and abroad. Through expanded interagency cooperation, the task force directs federal law enforcement resources toward identifying, investigating, and prosecuting a wide range of crimes committed by these organizations, which officials say have long fueled violence and instability inside the country.

  

The task force places particular emphasis on targeting individuals involved in child trafficking or other crimes against children. It also utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove violent foreign offenders from the United States.

The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section’s Judicial Attaché Office in Bogotá worked with the Colombian government to secure Vindas’s arrest and his extradition on Nov. 1, 2025.

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Anderson.

In a related matter, Costa Rican authorities recently deported a U.S. citizen identified by the last name Duran, who was the subject of an international Red Notice for arrest and extradition. The notice was issued by the U.S. Department of Justice in Pennsylvania. Duran faces charges including cocaine and fentanyl trafficking, along with criminal association.

Since a legal reform took effect in May 2025, allowing Costa Rican citizens, by birth or naturalization, to be extradited to countries with which Costa Rica has signed treaties, at least 12 nationals have been detained for extradition, according to the OIJ. Those include eight cases that will be extradited to the United States, two to France, one to Italy, and one to Panama.

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