Former Bolivian cabinet minister Arturo Murillo, who was deported from the United States after serving a sentence for money laundering, was arrested upon arrival in Santa Cruz on Thursday to face charges in his home country, an AFP journalist witnessed.

Murillo, 61, was sentenced in January 2023 to 70 months in a US prison for his role in laundering bribes received in exchange for helping a US company win a contract to supply tear gas to Bolivia.

He was released early, and a US immigration judge ordered his deportation earlier this month.

Murillo served as interior minister in the interim right-wing government of Jeanine Anez, who took over Bolivia’s government in 2019 after the ouster of Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, amid street protests.

Bolivian government minister Roberto Rios said Wednesday night that upon Murillo’s arrival, authorities would execute two local arrest warrants.

At dawn on Thursday, dozens of uniformed officers detained and handcuffed Murillo at the airport in Santa Cruz, in eastern Bolivia.

In October last year, Murillo was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison in Bolivia for overpriced tear gas purchases, the same case for which he was convicted in the United States.

In February 2025, he received a sentence exceeding five years in a case linked to the import of riot control equipment from Ecuador.

These acquisitions took place in 2019 amid intense social unrest in Bolivia, as security forces urgently sought riot gear following Morales’ departure.

Anez took power later that year after opposition allegations of electoral fraud by the leftist president.

Murillo’s deportation followed his US sentence for a $5.7 million tear gas contract.

Prosecutors alleged the supplier overcharged Bolivia by nearly $2.3 million during Murillo’s tenure as government minister.

In April 2024, a US court also ordered him to pay Bolivia $6.2 million for the scheme.

AFP