U.S. court sentences former Bolivian minister to 6 years in prison

A U.S. federal court sentenced former Bolivian Interior Minister Arturo Murillo to 70 months in prison Wednesday for conspiracy to commit money laundering and bribery, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Murillo, who is in prison in the U.S., is accused of taking at least $532,000 in bribes to help an American company obtain a $5.6 million contract in 2019 to sell tear gas to Bolivia's defense ministry. He received $130,000 in cash bribe payments at a family member's home in Miami, according to the agency.

The former interior minister, along with another former Bolivian official and three Americans, laundered the money from the bribery scheme through the U.S. financial system. They were sentenced in the U.S. last year after they pleaded guilty to having been involved in the scheme.

Murillo served as interior minister from 2019 to 2020 during the interim government of President Jeanine Anez, who took over following political turmoil that forced President Evo Morales to leave the country.

Morales's party retook power in November 2020, just when Murillo fled to Corumba in Brazil and then took a flight to Panama. He entered the U.S. on Nov. 12.

Bolivian Attorney General Wilfredo Chavez said an extradition process will be activated so that Murillo responds in Bolivia, after serving his sentence in the U.S.

"Justice has spoken in the United States. We are satisfied with this judicial decision, and we are going to make efforts for judicial actions," Chavez said at a news conference Wednesday.

The government will take legal action to be paid $532,000 "as a victim" of Murillo's crime, according to Chavez.