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She Was Arrested for Drug Trafficking. But Her Wanted Brother Standing Beside Her Wasn’t.

Guatemalan authorities arrested Marta Lorenzana, a suspected drug trafficker, for extradition to the U.S.—but not her brother, also wanted in the U.S on drug charges, who was standing right next to her at the time.
Guatemalan authorities arrested Marta Lorenzana, a suspected drug trafficker, for extradition to the U.S​ on April 30.
Guatemalan authorities arrested Marta Lorenzana, a suspected drug trafficker, for extradition to the U.S on April 30. Photo: Guatemala's Public Prosecutor.

Seated inside a patrol car between two police officers, Marta Lorenzana clutched a bottle of water with her long, white fingernails and grinned, seemingly unconcerned by the fact that she had just been arrested in eastern Guatemala for extradition to the U.S. on drug trafficking charges. It was the 20th capture of a suspected drug trafficker wanted for extradition so far this year – an impressive pace compared with past years. 

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But a photo from the scene shows that standing just outside the patrol car was a brother of Lorenzana, who is also wanted for extradition. The incident raised fresh questions about the selective nature of the captures and the infiltration of organized crime in the state’s security forces.

Marta, who was detained April 30, and her brother, Ovaldino, are alleged members of the Lorenzana crime family, which was once one of the most powerful drug clans in the country and a key ally of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel. Their father, Waldemar, known as the “Patriarch,” was extradited to the U.S. in 2014. After finding out that his children had been deceiving him about drug trafficking behind his back in order to avoid paying him commissions for their drug loads, he pled guilty and became a witness against his own family. 

“It’s absurd,” said Julie Lopez, a local journalist and author focused on drug trafficking. “The only reason why [Ovaldino] would be so confident to be there is because he knew that nothing was going to happen to him. If he had the slightest indication that he could be captured, he never would have been standing there.” 

Until now, Marta and Ovaldino were the only two of five siblings who remained free. The family patriarch died in prison on March 1.

Since taking office in January, the administration of U.S President Joe Biden has renewed its focus on drug trafficking and corruption in Central America after four years of turning a blind eye under former President Trump. Experts say that Guatemala’s sudden uptick in captures of suspected drug traffickers wanted for extradition in the U.S is an attempt to get on the new administration’s good side.

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“It is probably earth shattering for some of the people who are in Guatemala to see the high level of prosecution that is being pursued by U.S. authorities and I think there are probably people there who realized that it’s a good idea to establish a good working relationship,” said Robert Mazur, a former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent and author of the book The Infiltrator, about his time working undercover as a money launderer for drug traffickers.

In recent years, the Department of Justice has accused prominent government officials in the region of conspiring with drug traffickers, including Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.

Hernández, who enjoys certain immunity until he leaves office in January 2021, has not been charged with a crime and has denied any links to drug traffickers. His brother, former legislator Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, was sentenced in March to life in prison following an October 2019 conviction on drug trafficking and related weapons charges in a New York courthouse. 

Federal prosecutors have called Honduras a “narco state,” a designation that Guatemala desperately hopes to avoid. Since the Honduran constitution was amended in 2012 to allow for the extradition of drug traffickers, only 25 suspected narcos have been captured there despite numerous petitions from the U.S., including 19 in the first few months following the change. 

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Meanwhile, between 2016 and 2019, Guatemala captured 30 suspected narcos wanted by the United States, according to the country’s public prosecutor’s office. The capture of 20 narcos in only four months appears to be unprecedented. But this is not the first time that authorities have picked up the pace following pressure from the U.S. government. 

“A similar response has been seen in other administrations,” said Lopez, including in 2010 under former President Álvaro Colom. “They had years in which they hadn’t captured anyone that was high profile. But then there was a call to attention by the U.S. government to Guatemala and suddenly they were capturing half the world.” 

But even then, the captures were selective. “In the time of [President] Colom, they were only capturing associates of the Sinaloa Cartel [based in Mexico]. Later when there’s a change of government the first one caught is of the Zetas [Cartel, also Mexican],” said Lopez.

Marta Lorenzana had links to both cartels. In 2008, around the time that the 44-year-old allegedly entered into the family business, her husband, a powerful drug trafficker and associate of the Sinaloa Cartel named Juan León Ardón, was murdered in a shootout. In 2014, she married another trafficker, this time Jairo Orellana Morales, who is allegedly linked to the Zetas Cartel and at the time was in prison awaiting extradition to the U.S. 

Extraditing suspected drug bosses is seen as the easiest way for countries like Guatemala to show commitment to the fight against the international drug trade. The presidents of Honduras and Guatemala are quick to tout their extradition numbers as proof of their cooperation with the U.S. But both governments, besides selectively choosing who is captured and when, have failed to enact many of the structural changes that would truly make their countries hostile to the international drug trade, such as challenging corruption and improving their justice institutions.

“[Extradition] has been a sort of reaction to the demands of the United States,” said Lopez. “It’s less difficult than taking concrete steps against corruption.”

Meanwhile, all eyes are on Guatemalan authorities to see if Lorenzana’s brother Ovaldino will continue to benefit from the selective justice on display at his sister’s arrest.