Four convicted drug traffickers have been extradited from Guinea-Bissau to the United States to face sweeping federal charges tied to an elaborate transcontinental cocaine smuggling operation.
The suspects—Ramon Manriquez Castillo, 68, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen; Edgar Rodriguez Ruano, 29, of Mexico; Fernando Javier Escobar Tito, 48, from Ecuador; and Anderson Jair Gamboa Nieto, 30, a Colombian national—were handed over to U.S. authorities on April 16 as part of a judicial cooperation agreement between Bissau and Washington.
According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday by a federal grand jury, the four men allegedly played key roles in a sophisticated trafficking network that operated between November 2023 and September 2024.
The route spanned Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, the Bahamas, and Guinea-Bissau, with the suspects accused of orchestrating the shipment of tons of cocaine via aircraft registered in the United States.
U.S. officials say the plane carried a U.S. citizen as part of the operation.
The charges brought before the U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, include conspiracy to distribute large quantities of cocaine and actual distribution across multiple jurisdictions.
The case is part of an expansive federal crackdown on drug cartels and organized crime under the Department of Justice’s “Take Back America” initiative.
The defendants were initially apprehended on September 7, 2024, during “Operation Landing,” a coordinated drug bust at Bissau’s Osvaldo Vieira International Airport.
Authorities intercepted 2.6 tonnes of cocaine hidden aboard a parked aircraft.
In January 2025, Guinea-Bissau’s regional court sentenced all four to 17 years in prison before approving their extradition.
Their transfer was made possible through coordinated efforts involving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, INTERPOL, the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotics (MAOC-N), and U.S. embassies in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.
If convicted in the U.S., the four men face prison terms ranging from a minimum of ten years to life behind bars.
