Former Bolivian cabinet minister Arturo Murillo, who was deported from the United States after serving a sentence for money laundering, was arrested upon arrival in Santa Cruz Thursday to face charges in his home country, an AFP journalist witnessed.

Murillo, 61, was sentenced in January 2023 to 70 months in a US prison for his role in laundering bribes received in exchange for helping a US company win a contract to supply tear gas to Bolivia.

He was released early, and a US immigration judge ordered his deportation earlier this month.

Murillo served as interior minister in the interim right-wing government of Jeanine Anez, who took over Bolivia’s government in 2019 after the ouster of Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, amid street protests.

Bolivian government minister

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