Alleged Guatemalan Criminal Wanted in US, Arrested in Mexico in Joint Operation

Aler Baldomero Samayoa Recinos, known as La Chicharra (The Cicada), was detained after an operation involving Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States.

Aler Baldomero Samayoa Recinos, the alleged leader of the Los Huistas drug cartel, sits in a courthouse jail in Guatemala City on March 12, 2025. Edwin Bercian/AFP via Getty Images

An alleged Guatemalan drug trafficker and fugitive—who is wanted in the United States—was arrested in the Mexican state of Chiapas on Tuesday after a joint operation.

Aler Baldomero Samayoa Recinos, known as La Chicharra (The Cicada), was detained in southern Mexico on March 11, after an operation involving Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States.

Guatemalan Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez wrote on social media platform X, “Captured: The top leader of Los Huistas, Aler Baldomero Samayoa Recinos, alias ‘Chicharra.’ Guatemala’s number 1 most wanted and on the list of the 100 most wanted by the United States.”

Jiménez said Samayoa Recinos negotiated with Mexican cartels to traffic narcotics through Guatemala en route to the United States.

In March 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Los Huistas for “drug trafficking that threatens the people and security of the United States and Guatemala.”

In a statement published at the time, the department said Samayoa Recinos “oversees a trafficking operation that coordinates the transportation of cocaine shipments from Huehuetenango, Guatemala into the Mexican state of Chiapas.”

The department added that Samayoa Recinos “is also engaged in money laundering activities on behalf of the Los Huistas DTO [Drug Trafficking Organization].”

In 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia indicted Samayoa Recinos on charges related to cocaine trafficking following an investigation by the DEA.

Interpol posted on X, “Guatemala’s most wanted criminal captured in Mexico. The fugitive a.k.a. ‘La Chicharra’ was arrested on March 11 in Chiapas, Mexico. The leader of the criminal organisation ‘Los Huistas’ is subject of an INTERPOL Red Notice and was transferred to the [Guatemalan government].”

Following his capture, Samayoa Recinos was airlifted to Guatemala ahead of extradition proceedings to the United States, according to Guatemala’s Ministry of the Interior.

Mexico’s two most powerful cartels, the Sinaloa cartel and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), have been fighting for control of lucrative smuggling routes in southern Mexico.

“The Los Huistas DTO smuggles cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin from its base in northern Guatemala to the United States using Mexican organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG),” the U.S. Department of the Treasury said in 2022. “The Los Huistas DTO also produces heroin and manufactures methamphetamine for export to the United States. Cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin consumed in the United States are frequently laced with fentanyl, which can significantly increase the possibility of overdose and death for its users.”

Cultivating Poppies in Guatemala

The Department of the Treasury also said Los Huistas controlled poppy cultivation fields in the Huehuetenango and San Marcos regions of Guatemala and “has imported precursor chemicals from China to manufacture methamphetamine.”

Samayo Recinos’ arrest comes as the Guatemalan Army steps up its border patrols, under pressure from the White House.

Colonel Juan Ernesto Celis, a Guatemalan army spokesman, said one of his units patrolled the Suchiate River, which forms the western end of the Guatemala-Mexico border, on Thursday.

He said border patrol operations had been stepped up since January.

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Guatemala in February, President Bernardo Arévalo announced he would form a new border security force to patrol his nation’s borders with Honduras and El Salvador as well as the Mexican frontier.

Arévalo has said migration is a right, but he wants it regulated and has ordered the army to stop illegal arms, drugs, and human trafficking.

The Guatemalan and Mexican governments are also stepping up cooperation.

On Thursday, Ann Marie Argueta, a spokeswoman for Guatemala’s defense department, said the military wanted to protect Guatemalans but also prevent, “incursions into national territory by transnational organized crime.”

In July 2024, nearly 600 Mexicans fled fighting between drug cartels in their communities across the border and sought refuge in Guatemala.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.