In a startling development, Bolivia’s former counternarcotics czar, Felipe Cáceres, has been arrested following the discovery of a cocaine laboratory on one of his properties. Cáceres, who led the government department for controlled substances from 2006 to 2019, was a key figure in Bolivia’s fight against illegal drugs. The arrest took place in Puerto Villarroel, Cochabamba, a region known for its coca cultivation. While it remains unclear whether Cáceres was aware of the lab’s existence, the discovery has cast a shadow over Bolivia’s anti-drug efforts. The lab, capable of employing 10 people, was found on land owned by Cáceres, though investigations are ongoing to determine his direct involvement. Bolivia’s Interior Minister, Roberto Ríos, stated that Cáceres was detained near a sand and gravel plant he owns, located 500 meters from the lab. This incident adds to a series of scandals involving Bolivian anti-drug officials. Maximiliano Dávila, a former head of the counternarcotics police, is currently awaiting trial in the US on drug smuggling charges, while another former chief, René Sanabria, served a 14-year sentence in the US for drug trafficking. Bolivia, the world’s third-largest cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru, allows the legal cultivation of coca leaves for medicinal and traditional purposes. However, any production beyond the legally permitted 22,000 hectares is subject to destruction. Cáceres, a former leader in a coca-growers’ union, had close ties to former President Evo Morales, who has dismissed the arrest as a ‘set-up’ and accused the government of using it to divert attention from its own scandals. A lawyer for Morales’s party emphasized that investigators must prove a direct link between Cáceres and the cocaine lab.